Arsenal

[Dov67]

They've always had huge amounts of luck. I don't expect that to change.

I dont believe that is luck.

I dont understand how anyone can look at that on a screen in slow motion and not see that he leans in with his arm.

By pure coincidence Michael Oliver just happens to be the referee responsible for one of the worst refereeing performance of the season when we played them at the Lane, where again, by sheer coincidence, every single awful decision benefited arsenal and penalised us

 

[Mr Pink]

I dont believe that is luck.

I dont understand how anyone can look at that on a screen in slow motion and not see that he leans in with his arm.

By pure coincidence Michael Oliver just happens to be the referee responsible for one of the worst refereeing performance of the season when we played them at the Lane, where again, by sheer coincidence, every single awful decision benefited arsenal and penalised us

Dont forget the home game against Chelsea as well.

He let them get away with numerous fouls which contributed to our ill discipline bourne out of frustration.

 

[spursfan77]

Actually. I agree to an extent but then just think about this.

They got comfortably knocked out of both cups early on.

They lost 3 away games in CL and got knocked out by a Bayern team who are far from their best.

I don't think Arteta has even made a semi final.

So their league form should be good considering the money spent and how long Arteta has beem there.

If they do worse next season the pressure will start to mount.

They won’t be up there next season. Third year of bottling in a row. Psychologically getting a weak minded set of players motivated again is a huge job.

Besides

 

[Dov67]

Dont forget the home game against Chelsea as well.

He let them get away with numerous fouls which contributed to our ill discipline bourne out of frustration.

Hadn’t realised that was him too.

Why are we as a club so passive when we get f***d by referees? We should have been screaming blue murder about his performance against arsenal and chelsea. He’s screwed us, and got away with it. We said nothing, we did nothing, so he knows he can f**k us again with no consequences, and so he will

 

[spurmin]

 

[wakefieldyid]

Dont forget the home game against Chelsea as well.

He let them get away with numerous fouls which contributed to our ill discipline bourne out of frustration.

He obviously learned his refereeing from the same school as Mark Clattenberg...

 

[Tucker]

They won’t be up there next season. Third year of bottling in a row. Psychologically getting a weak minded set of players motivated again is a huge job.

Besides

When they went there and played for a draw at the time I thought it was the right decision, it kept them in the race, as losing would have handed the keys to Man City, and I think even Liverpool at the time too. But what Rhodri says makes a lot of sense, psychologically you need to go there and try to win, sure if you get a draw that’s still a good result, but playing for a point sends a message to the players that deep down they are inferior to City.

 

[WorcesterTHFC]

Hadn’t realised that was him too.

Why are we as a club so passive when we get f***d by referees? We should have been screaming blue murder about his performance against Arsenal and Chelsea. He’s screwed us, and got away with it. We said nothing, we did nothing, so he knows he can f**k us again with no consequences, and so he will

Being calm and dignified gets you nowhere, I'm sorry to say. We need to start kicking up a fuss about these things.

 

[WorcesterTHFC]

I dont believe that is luck.

I dont understand how anyone can look at that on a screen in slow motion and not see that he leans in with his arm.

By pure coincidence Michael Oliver just happens to be the referee responsible for one of the worst refereeing performance of the season when we played them at the Lane, where again, by sheer coincidence, every single awful decision benefited arsenal and penalised us

I wasn't referring to just one or two recent incidents. I was talking about their outrageous levels of good fortune over a few decades. Even in the late 1970s and early '80s, we used to refer to them as 'lucky Arsenal'.

 

[Kirito]

I believe that we were better than them in both games this season. At their ground we played them off the park in the second half and had some bad luck. Same at our ground, we played the better football but gone done on a couple of set pieces and a dodgy ref. I think next season we’ll beat them.

 

[WiganSpur]

That's one way of looking at it. Here is another one:

2022
4th Tottenham - 71 Points
5th Arsenal - 69 Points

2023
2nd Arsenal - 84 Points
8th Tottenham - 60 Points

2024
2nd Arsenal - 89 Points
5th Tottenham - 66 Points

If you want to compete year in and year out with the best in the league, you’ve got to buy quality players. Arsenal's board has at least tried to do just that, which has led them to run Man City (the best team in the world) close twice in a row. Since our revenue is on par with Arsenal's, it seems intuitive that we should expect Levy and the board to show similar ambition.

The thing that has always irked me about our transfer strategy has been favouring quantity over quality and ending up spending the same amount. I get it if the youth players are no good but they blatantly are for us right now so the focus has to be on quality this summer. No more Solomon’s or Werner’s please.

 

[djhotspur]

I can't remember the last time a ref was told to change his decision (which in effect they are told) and didn't...

Was probably him though.

It's right when the fans sing "it's all about you" to him.

Think it's got to the point where i actually prefer Mike Dean to him, Both unapproachable little oiks.

Hope he stinks up the place at the Euros.

Apparently he refused to look at the Kulu pen againsy arsenal too..

 

[djhotspur]

They haven't been totally injury free but I think Arsenal and City have been a touch on the fortunate side this season with the injuries too.

We need to be on it next season. I think Liverpool will struggle initially without Klopp's leadership, and a minimum of 8 CL games for Villa will make things difficult for them. I reckon Chelsea and Spurs will be the only other ones to watch. Both have had a pretty torrid time with injuries and with new managers.

They have but city had de bruyne out for half the season it’s a big miss

 

[djhotspur]

Saliba, Gabriel, White, Rice, Odegaard, Havertz and Saka, the majority of their first choice XI, have missed a combined 15 league games this season while most of the the other teams in the league seemed to be suffering from unprecedented levels of injury crises.

Are they really progressing, or did they just benefit from having consistency of selection for their key players while the teams around them were regularly putting out patchwork squads? As far as I can see, the main difference between this season and the last season is last season they got one long term injury to a key player, Saliba, in the back end of the season and that was enough to completely derail them. This season, they didn't have that issue.

How likely are they to be as fortunate next season with avoiding injuries, with the EUROs and Copa America this summer?

Agreed plus they got a lot of luck against other teams with players out. The pivotal game against wolves after Bayern wolves had both wing backs and all 3 forwards out yet still
Dominated arsenal but couldn’t score.
Against us less luck but Udogie being out cost us a goal.
Against city at home, city had their whole starting back line out yet arsenal still played for a draw,
Against United at United, United had rashford, Bruno out in attack, plus they had 1 fit cb. If United had 2 cbs and Bruno and rashford fit they win that game.

 

[Spurs_1981]

Agreed plus they got a lot of luck against other teams with players out. The pivotal game against wolves after Bayern wolves had both wing backs and all 3 forwards out yet still
Dominated arsenal but couldn’t score.
Against us less luck but Udogie being out cost us a goal.
Against city at home, city had their whole starting back line out yet arsenal still played for a draw,
Against United at United, United had rashford, Bruno out in attack, plus they had 1 fit cb. If United had 2 cbs and Bruno and rashford fit they win that game.

I seem to remember that Palmer missed out for Chelsea against them as well? It really did feel like they had a near perfect scenario to have a tilt at the title this season

 

[tommo84]

I wasn't referring to just one or two incidents recently. I was talking about their outrageous levels of good fortune over a few decades. Even in the late 1970s and early '80s, we used to refer to them as 'lucky Arsenal'.

Yeah my Dad is in his 70s, grew up as a Northampton fan and developed a soft spot for Liverpool when Phil Neal went there. He has no reason to be illogical or irrational when it comes to Arsenal but he hates them as he says they’ve always been the luckiest team in the country. It’s been going on for decades so expect it to continue next year as well.

 

[djhotspur]

I seem to remember that Palmer missed out for Chelsea against them as well? It really did feel like they had a near perfect scenario to have a tilt at the title this season

Oh yeah that’s right. And they still could have scored 6. They missed so many chances chelsea

 

[jurgen]

That's one way of looking at it. Here is another one:

2022
4th Tottenham - 71 Points
5th Arsenal - 69 Points

2023
2nd Arsenal - 84 Points
8th Tottenham - 60 Points

2024
2nd Arsenal - 89 Points
5th Tottenham - 66 Points

If you want to compete year in and year out with the best in the league, you’ve got to buy quality players. Arsenal's board has at least tried to do just that, which has led them to run Man City (the best team in the world) close twice in a row. Since our revenue is on par with Arsenal's, it seems intuitive that we should expect Levy and the board to show similar ambition.

Absolutely agree, and I don't see anyone would not want our board to go for it the way Arsenal's have in recent years.

However, as it stands, they have ultimately only achieved 2 consecutive seasons of CL football as a result of this huge expenditure - could they have spent 300m less and still be in the mix for CL football, quite probably, and I'd fear that's how our club will see it.

 

[Albertbarich]

They're a very good team that controls opponents.

Yes they have had a lot of luck with injuries and decisions although the VAR table says they have had more against them than we have .

I hope and pray it goes wrong but sadly with the level of investment their board will make I don't see them going anywhere. Especially if they get their alleged top target in Isak.

 

[Cornpattbuck]

Blatant cheating, look in the comments of that thread and it shows the Odegaard against Liverpool.

it is honestly laughable how that was not given as a penalty.

And them somehow getting a penalty when VDV made a block, the ball bounced into the ground and then straight into Romero's arm in a completely different direction to the original shot...