Last night was another in our recent sequence of “any landing you walk away from” results. We got the crucial three points to maintain the five point gap between ourselves and Yoonited in first place with us tucked in in second spot.
There was a classic example of how many men as well as women don’t understand and/or misapply/and or are deficient in eye-sight when it comes to the offside law. Richard Keys and Andy Gray, part of football’s Taliban Tendency would have you believe that women don’t, including professional match officials.
Everton’s Louis Saha was clearly in an offside position when receiving the ball. It matters not a jot that the ball was inadvertently played by Laurent Koscielny on its way through to him. It hasn’t for decades, a fact apparently lost on too many supposedly professional pundits, including Andy Townsend. Saha was clearly in an offside position, by a good two metres I’d estimate. Koscielny’s touch didn’t begin a new phase of play. Saha was clearly “active”. It’s not as if he was lurking out on the wing out of our defenders’ eyesight and eye-line.
It’s impossible to believe that the referee and his assistant didn’t see Saha was active and in an offside position when the pass was played. Koscielny’s attempted interception/clearance merely deflected to ball on its path to Saha. Clearly offside. Clearly active. Clearly gaining an advantage. The correct decision was an indirect free-kick to Arsenal. Of that there can be no doubt.
There are allegations that skipper Cesc Fàbregas directed a foul-mouthed tirade at referee Lee Mason in the tunnel at half-time. Arsčne Wenger says nothing untoward occurred. Everton manager David Moyes, whom I admire for his work at both Preston North End and Everton, says otherwise. In the absence of disinterested witnesses or video evidence I’m not going to judge. I can’t. I wasn’t there nor is there video evidence to make my own mind up.
What I do know is that our captain has the irritating habit of waving imaginary cards when he believes an opponent should be cautioned or dismissed. He was at it again on Sunday against Huddersfield Town following the award of our winning penalty. Here’s an idea mate. Just get on with the game. You just play. Let the officials referee.
The waving of imaginary cards is far from the most pressing problem of on-field discipline. Neither is attempting to pressure the match officials new. I’d like to see a consistent clamp-down on reckless and violent tackles as a first priority. Some match officials enrage me too with their apparent inconsistencies, even within one match, never mind between them. They also miss things, misapply the laws and make incorrect decisions. They have bad games.
I have bad takes at work too. I make poor decisions. Whilst we should demand the highest and most consistent level of performance from our match officials, they’re entitled to do their job free of foul-mouthed abuse and “helpful suggestions” from the players.
I despise opposition players who try and get Arsenal players booked or sent off. I understand the competitive instinct. I played competitive sport myself for many years, albeit at a low amateur level. Any sportsman wants decisions to go their way, to win. But the key word in the last sentence in “sportsman”. I understand the massive sums involved in football nowadays. It’s not as if any Premier League player is going to be put out on the street or have their electricity disconnected for failure to pay the bill if they lose a game however.
Yes, I want teak-hard professionals with a real iron will to win. I prefer to win on our merits however. In the second half last night we did just enough to merit the win and the three points. Now we need to focus on our visit to Tyneside on Saturday to play Newcastle United.
I know a number of Gooners who like to make a weekend of our trips to the north-east. It’s easy to understand why. Newcastle is definitely British party central on Friday and Saturday nights. I’ve always found the natives to be friendly, which isn’t always the case in northern cities as far as southerners go. If you’ve never done a weekend up there I’d recommend it if you like to get down and PAAA-RRRR-TTTYYYY!
Keep the faith!
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