Matchday 3: Liverpool vs Arsenal - Sunday Aug 31, 16:30 GMT: Page 4 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Matchday 3: Liverpool vs Arsenal - Sunday Aug 31, 16:30 GMT

awooga83

I don't believe in pre determined refereeing outcome with these fixture. What we need to be able to do is make games less marginal because if they are then small outcomes like a refs decision will have a disproportionate impact. Try to take it out of the equation by scoring more etc.

That's hard at Anfield though as just not dropping points directly to them has to be the main goal. The head to heads aren't often the decisive factor so not getting beat away is the first priority.

Qwiss

tazmania For fucks sake. What's that new rule they introduced this season? How can I bet he'll adopt it anally again us -literally and figuratively - then we'll never hear about it again? We'll get called for every corner too

Its the grappling in the box rule, the one that seemed to be completely ignored when Liverpool were hanging out of Newcastle players on Monday.

QuincyAbeyie maybe if he changed his mentality Arteta would call him up?

awooga83 We've always had to beat the opposition and the refs. The teams of the late 00's up until the Invincibles all had loads of shit decisions against them. United were as protected by the refs as any team I've ever seen. This is being Arsenal, you always need to do more.

tazmania I'm saying the odds are against us with these scumbags.

lorddulaarsenal

I think we’re going to beat ‘em.

Won’t be easy but just have a feeling that Gyokeres has a statement match. Think he’ll be that much fitter after another week of training.

They are also suspect on set pieces

tazmania

Sicario2 not loser mentality.
I'm saying the odds are against us with these scumbags.

I'm very confident we'll win anyway

flobaba

We are going to start Merino at Anfield if Odegaard can't make it. His autistic ass will lead the press. Madueke on the right, Martinelli on the left. Will be full Arteta Haramball. Solid, soulless. Set pieces bombing in. Snatch a goal that way and retreat into a contain and counter structure. We should be able to handle anything they throw at us for the most part. If they happen to score, we will wait till the second half, when Eze will come in for Martinelli to inject some extra creativity and ball retention. Not sure what to expect from Gyokeres vs Konate / VVD. I suspect he'll have a frustrating day at the office. All the same, a draw seems feasible to me at the moment.

RocktheCasbah

flobaba We are going to start Merino at Anfield if Odegaard can't make it.

Nope.

Qwiss

Mirth yep. This week you could see the real Slot. Liverpool were utter shit, didn't manage a shot for almost an hour vs 10 men, spent long stints trapped in their own half, had a couple of good pen calls against them dismissed and then after the game he acted like Newcastle sat in and accused them of not playing football when they were easily the better team before and after the red card. The snide little snickering from him saying "Oh was that football" too, truly detestable.

awooga83

Qwiss We've always had to beat the opposition and the refs. The teams of the late 00's up until the Invincibles all had loads of shit decisions against them. United were as protected by the refs as any team I've ever seen. This is being Arsenal, you always need to do more.

Every team thinks that though, bad refereeing decisions occur but they aren't some organised anti Arsenal thing they are just bad decisions which inevitably occur where humans are making decisions. Whenever any fan group recalls this stuff they remember the bad and never the ones that go their own way which is also human nature.

Like I've said when a game is marginal small moments like a refs decision or a mistake can decide it. You try to mitigate for those variables by not leaving matches that marginal.

Qwiss

awooga83 bad refereeing decisions occur but they aren't some organised anti Arsenal thing they are just bad decisions which inevitably occur where humans are making decisions.

Strongly disagree. There is definitely more preferential treatment given to clubs like Liverpool now and United when they were good.

awooga83

Qwiss So they got them when they were good i.e winning titles but they lose it when not? Which might explain our challenge as we haven't been that good for a lot of time. I would say the most awful referee decision against a team that I saw happend to Liverpool but I don't think that would be support for a similar claim for them.

flobaba I mean I don't think this is a credible analysis given it was created in the Arsenal thread. Not to mention just showing the stats doesn't tell you if there is bias or not because there will be so many variables that factor into why things may have happened it's nowhere near as simple as this number is higher so that means there is. They also selected 2 referees with presumably high stats for Arsenal but what about other referees and in comparison to all other clubs? There also seems to be different data for pens as according to the premier League site the pens record is Liverpool (99) United (97) Arsenal (92) not exactly signs of some grand attempt to block Arsenal. Lots of confirmation bias in that for me and a classic thing we all do that looks like it proves my point so don't scrutinize it.

It's very difficult for fans to deal with these subjects objectively because we also have bias and everyone will see things like that.

flobaba

Don’t know where they’ve gathered the data, but,

flobaba

Add to that the evident racism and media bias against our black players especially, see MLS most recently, Saka during the England internationals, it’s not too hard to come to a conclusion that there’s something going on. This isn’t folks imagining things or variance or marginal calls.

awooga83

flobaba I don't dispute the media treatment of black layers but it hasn't just been us Sterling also was subject to lots of it having played for Liverpool and City. That's more evidence of racial prejudice more routinely in the media again not specifically against Arsenal.

Meatwad

flobaba
referees come from the most racist parts of england, but they aren't biased people. they are fair. the FA is going to target millwall for recruitment, so they can claim they have a ref from london.

Burnwinter

The effect of more or less unprecedented and unrepeated refereeing decisions on our league run last year was anywhere from about 6 points to at a stretch the whole 10 points we finished behind Liverpool. These decisions had a huge impact on us. Meanwhile just one similarly ludicrous decision against City in the back half of 23–24 and we'd have been champions.

Qwiss

awooga83 So they got them when they were good i.e winning titles but they lose it when not? Which might explain our challenge as we haven't been that good for a lot of time.

I've seen us be brilliant and I've seen us be shit, the one constant is getting fucked by refs. Even in the invincible season we had a silly amount of reds. And they tried to fuck us with the penalty van Nistlerooy missed. They eventually ended our unbeaten run with a disgraceful reffing display against United too.

Dom

Meatwad referees come from the most racist parts of england

Don't think there are that many from the home counties.

awooga83

Qwiss the point I was making was you said United used to get loads of decisions when they were good but why would there be a change in bias against them later. Also Liverpool got the most awful decision when they were good. Of course there are individual decisions that have impacted us just like Liverpool and every club can point to.

I don't doubt any persons strength of feeling of it but all fans groups will say the same and claim rival teams get preferential treatment including us. That's natural because we all carry our own bias. To be able to substantiate it requires more objective information and the things that were referenced didn't really stand up to scrutiny and without that corroboration it's just every teams fans saying they get the worst treatment and as fans of arsenal of course we are inclined to believe the arsenal perspective.

samthegooner

Getting back to the actual match on Sunday, what would everyone like to see in terms of lineups? It looks like Saka and Havertz are definitely out with question marks around Odegaard's availability.

If Odegaard is available, I would like to see:
Eze - Gyokeres - Madueke
Rice - Zubimendi - Odegaard
Calafiori - Gabriel - Saliba - Timber
Raya

If he isn't, I'd put Eze in for him and add Martinelli as the LW.

The only other debate I've been having internally is potentially putting Timber on the left to defend Salah since he's our best 1v1 defender and is right footed to deal with the cut ins. We've seen that be successful before with Tomiyasu but I think it completely depends on White's fitness. I do have some worries about Calafiori playing against Salah defensively.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

I think Calafiori will start but if we happen to be really under the cosh, MLS will come on for him at HT or even sooner.

Nwaneri or even Merino are more likely to start in midfield than Eze considering our new boy hasn't even played yet and this is at Anfield.

« Previous Page Next Page »