It started so well. A couple of minutes in we got an early free kick on the left which Ødegaard went to take. Kiwior jogged over and had a quiet word in his shell, before taking up a central position. When the delivery came, the Polish international found himself in acres of space. Still with plenty to do, he powered a wonderful header into the back of the net. All we needed was a clean sheet and we were home and hosed. Instead, we put together a disjointed performance, low on quality and rhythm, that will have left most of Paris wondering what all the fuss is about.
Ødegaard gave away a shocking ball deep in our half and from the resultant corner Eddie, formerly of this parish, headed wide after Raya flapped at the ball. Our keeper had as poor a game as he has had since those first few dodgy months. He did so much flapping tonight you’d have thought he expected to fly home.
It was not a fun watch. We were slow and sloppy. Palace looked more likely to score but they lacked incision, and we made a couple of useful blocks, Kiwior being the pick of our back line. However, after twenty-six minutes we left Eze in acres of space on the edge of our box as a Palace corner came in, and Trossard could not get close as he volleyed the ball into the ground and in off the post. Quality finish, but Arteta will have the video out and he won’t be happy with that.
Palace got in far too easily with a series of diagonals over Timber, but Eddie is the same player that left us, decent in the box but rarely creating much anywhere else. At the other end, as half time drew near, our Dutch right-back fired a ball into Trossard’s feet, and the diminutive Belgian collected it sharply, twisted onto his left foot and squeezed a shot into the bottom corner via a deflection. We did not really deserve it, and we had to hope that his continued efficacy in front of goal would be enough to take the points when our performance didn’t necessarily deserve them.
The ref gave Rice a yellow for nothing just before the break and then gave Devenny one for a similar flavour of nothing just after. He also gave Palace possession via a drop ball after he’d stopped the game because Eddie had crashed into his own keeper. Strange rule, or incorrect application of whatever the rule is – I’ve given up trying to work out which, the rules only feature intermittently anyway.
Saka came on just before the hour for Sterling, but he was my triple captain in Fantasy League, and so destined to go without goals or assists. He had a decent chance when he volleyed a Martinelli cross at goal, but Henderson made a solid save. Devenny messed up a header on sixty-five minutes, shouldering a cross he should probably have scored from. Raya tipped his loopy effort over the bar and then saved a Guehi header from another dangerous Palace corner. A minute later Eddie tried a spectacular overhead kick but missed the ball. He’s a good lad and when he was subbed off he got a generous reception, but the scissor kick air swipe did make me smile. Raya’s subsequent continuing efforts to defy the strictures of gravity saw him nowhere near another corner, Munoz headed it back and Sarr touched it wide. Palace should really have scored.
We then did score, Ødegaard flicking the ball over for Timber who hooked it back over Henderson for Martinelli to tap in. The flag immediately went up, apparently for offside, and the goal was ruled out. A long VAR check established that Timber was not offside but that the ball had gone out of touch. It was a bit hard to see as the net was in the way of the line camera, but it looked a correct, if annoying, call in the end.
With eight minutes of normal time remaining, it looked like we were going to be able to see this one out, but William Saliba gave Palace an equaliser, failing to return a short ball to Ødegaard and instead gifting it to Mateta. Our captain tried to win it back, but hindsight suggests a far more cynical lunge at the striker would have been a better bet (although perhaps not as he plays for Arsenal so it would probably have resulted in a red card not seen in a similar situation before or since). In any event, Mateta provided Palace’s second wonderful finish of the night to chip the ball past Raya and in off the underside of the crossbar. That is the second goal Saliba has given away in a week and this time it proved costly.
We huffed and puffed for a winner, but we could just as easily have conceded. A Tierney long throw caught them napping but Martinelli raced away only to shoot tamely into the side netting. The whistle went and I was just glad it was over. I did have two Palace supporting mates at the game and after seeing their fantastic away fans myself earlier in the year I can’t grudge any of them a point and two outstanding goals. And good luck to them at the weekend in the FA Cup. At no point this evening did any of our own fellow fans opine that they had only come to see the Arsenal. Anyone who did would have been sorely disappointed.
There was talk before the game from pundits about how Arsenal needed to avoid defeat or Liverpool would be champions. As usual, they missed the point entirely. Liverpool will be champions and when that is confirmed is utterly irrelevant to Gooners. We needed to take the points because we have a huge semifinal coming up and we need to wrap second place in the league up with the minimum of fuss. Instead, we threw in a horrible performance that didn’t deserve more than a point. Kiwior and Partey were pretty good. A handful were okay, and a few were on the poor side of okay. No-one was awful, but we looked like a side too used to drawing matches, and that is a bad habit if we want to have a proper crack at the league next year.
I suppose we will have to take this one in the context of the PSG tie. If we turn up over those two legs, no-one will remember this dire game. Frankly, I shall be making extra effort to forget myself, although this may not be required. Nothing to see here folks, please go about your business.
Until next time, ‘holics.
GSD,
C100 implored us not to speak of this game again and then you produce a report that is much better than the game deserves ( or would deserve if I could remember it )
I agree that Kiwior and Partey were good and I’d give praise to Trossard , Timber and Rice. MLS was also decent. Saliba and Raya had shockers and Sterling had no positive effect on the game at all. At some stage I think we should begin negotiations with those alien body-snatchers who have nicked our captain and left in his place this wan, emaciated lad who is nowhere near the player he has been for the last two seasons.
We will get second just and more importantly we will recover to win the Champions League . That will be fun
Then we will never speak of this game again.
Er what game?
Thanks GSD, Far better read than it was to watch.
As lifeless and lacklustre as I’ve seen us, defensively bad for both goals, I’ve not hid my feelings about Raya and you have to ask why in gods name he waits until it is too late to get back to the goal.
I know the title is long gone but 2nd is not assured yet
Bravo, Dino. As DG said, a far better read than the game was to watch. I hope it (the game, not your match report) flushed all the late-season gunk out of our system and that next week it will be a case of, as the song has it, “off with a boiler full of steam and our engine spic and span”.
In the meantime, the latest GHF Predictathon leaderboard has been posted. All the thrills and spills of Match Week 33 are there, plus the squigly five-week form guide. You know where to find it…
Fair report GSD.
I shall try to forget this one too, and focus on next week.
Well written to the usual high standards.
All teams throw in performances like that, it’s just that we have had too many this season.
Hope it doesn’t affect our 2nd place. It will be a sickener if City pip us there as well.
Excellent summary of an evening event that was far from the same. I hope I never see Rahaim Sterling at any such similar event in a red (or black) strip ever again.
Nice write-up, Dino. Can’t have been easy.
Looks like the season ticket holders were right to stay at home in numbers, providing the football tourists with an opportunity to see a game as insipid as a 1970’s avocado bathroom suite.
Thanks GSD, that was the game I saw and drove 3 hours to see and that I wish I hadn’t bothered. Incomprehensiblely poor – I hope their minds were elsewhere because they certainly didn’t look focused on the task at hand. I was sitting above the away fans who were gratuitously offensive to Trossard and Partey, hence the former’s cupped ear when he scored. Their most frequent chant was ‘Second again, you’re going to be second again!’ I sincerely hope that we are though after last night I have legitimate doubts. However it’s a bit ironic coming from fans of a club that has never finished anywhere or won anything.
Many Thanks GSD, I am moving along in an orderly fashion.
Well done, Dino – the pre-match build up on Sky truly amounted to much ado about nothing. Awful performance – no focus – no drive – careless – very much out of character with the manager who looked angry afterwards. And rightly so.
Hopefully it was a matter of distraction before next week. Some of our players look tired. Fingers crossed six days is enough to recharge the batteries.
Pedro is also bang on the money about how we should feel about that game:
https://www.le-grove.co.uk/p/it-doesnt-fcking-matter
However, I still have to make a 3 hour drive home!
Safe drive back, baff.
Thanks Ollie. Just home. God, there are some nutters on the M25 and the M4. Absolute nutters.
I’ve just had a peek at the Ropey League. Congratulations TTG for your late surge to the top. You must tell me how you do it!
I see that being the classy club they are, with all that history dating way back to their formation in 1970, that club which would be nothing without being petro-state owned, and which plays a grand total of zero competitive games in its own league as a result, having won 13 league titles, all but 2 of them since the money arrived, and not having any inferiority complex whatsoever, PSG, has not even deigned to give us 5% of the tickets for the away leg.
I hope to hell we have reciprocated.
@14 yeah, well done on the late surge TTG, but have you gone too early?
By the way, no Arsenal game this week. Do we need to clarify whether players need to retain at least one player in the squad even if Arsenal are not playing….I can’t remember what we said last time
OM, We didn’t discuss that particular circumstance so the rule that we must have at least one Arsenal player in our squad therefore still applies.
CER, they are clearly ensuring that their players will not be intimidated by the noise that would be made after a reasonable allocation of tickets to the travelling Gooners.
Apparently they did the same to Villa. So basically, a ground with a similar capacity to Villa Park and Goodison can only give us 2/3 of the capacity those grounds do. No doubt backed up by their money and the influence it buys at UEFA. They disgust me on every level.
CER surely we just give them the same number of tickets they give us. I’d rather the seats are empty than full of their pathetic ultra twats.
Would that it were that easy, SP. You’re supposed to give 5%. Two Bob club that they are, PSG repeatedly fall back on alleged “police advice” to limit away attendance at their ground, while taking full advantage of clubs which play by the rules to get their band of troublemakers the full complement of tickets. Nice work if you can get it.
They are a pound shop Tottenham.
CER@15: Article 45.01 of the CL regulations states:
Home clubs must make at least 5% of the UEFA spectator capacity available to visiting supporters in line with the provisions of Article 17 of the UEFA Stadium Infrastructure Regulations and Article 19 of the UEFA Safety and Security Regulations.
We are reciprocating, offering only 2,500 tickets to PSG fans for the game at the Ems. That is 4.2% of the Ems’ capacity. Apparently, we are arguing security concerns in connection with this weekend’s London Marathon.
It is a fair bet that we’ll be fined by UEFA unless we cough up 3,000 tickets, even though UEFA turned a blind eye when PSG did the same thing to Newcastle last season.
Take the fine. 2500 Paris wankers is 2500 too many.
What fine are PSG receiving?
Once you roll over to wankers like that, you never get your ground back.
OM
I’m afraid the fixtures dictated the team I put out . Premature evaluation has never been a particular problem but Bath underlines the rule which says we must have at least one Arsenal player and no Totts. The latter rule has not been an impediment this season .
TTG, to be honest I was only thinking of myself as Ned and I are struggling titanically for the all important 6th position and I was playing the Free Hit this week. Anyway, I will follow as Bath states @17
There appears to have been a hoo-ha between the Ashburton Army and the club over a Tifo that they wanted to display at the PSG game but that allegedly wasn’t finished in time for the club so the club have made their own. It has been suggested that there are some twisted knickers among some fan groups but I haven’t seen any among the folks in the places I look. Does anyone who has a wider/younger network than me heard anything?
OM@26: Don’t knock it. 6th is a trophy.
CER@23: There was, of course, no fine. One rule for… and all that.
Congratulations to our neighbors in Barnet who are back in the League from next season.
And commiserations to Aaron who has gone down with Cardiff. Looks like Eddie will be happier than Emi too. Villa getting outplayed.
OM not sure Barnet are anyone’s neighbours. They play in Harrow not Barnet after cuckooing out another team from a stadium they were building.
https://youtube.com/shorts/kCsHaPGR8JI?si=RZBmo3WEuL0As63E
Made me chuckle
SP
Sadly he lost though!
Thanks SP, I didnt know they aren’t even in Barnet any more. I suppose I should pay more attention……
Ned @29 – Quelle surprise. They’re a Poundland Barcelona.
Bath @27 – I’ll get 21CG on the case. Da Yoot have all sorts of back channels I don’t understand.
Young Max Dowman scored all four of Arsenal’s goals in a win over Reading that keeps their Under 18 title hopes alive . That’s ten for him in the last four games . I susorct he may be in the first team squad next season
Would young Max not go into under 21s first TTG?
As I understand the PL rules, Dowman can’t sign a contract with the club until he turns 16 in December, and until he does, he can’t play in competitive games higher than the U-18s.
He can train with the first-team squad, as he has been doing, but can’t be named to a match-day squad. He will also be subject to the PL’s youth development rules until he turns 17, when the club can move him to the professional development track (basically the U-21s).
Correct me if I’m wrong but Ethan Nwaneri made his debut at QPR off the bench at the age of 15 didn’t he? They must have changed the rules since then . Possibly they changed it because Arsenal had such an abundance of young talent !
I thought Dowman was unable to play because he was registered with the Under 15s at the start of the season . Had he been registered with the Under 16s I thought he could play . I also thought he coukd play in the FA Cup at 15 .
Great stuff from the Arsenal Women in Lyon, 4-0 away at one of the best teams in Europe.
Well said Matt!
A superb performance by the ladies in Lyon one of the powerhouses of European ladies football . The game eventually ended 4-1 but we were very worthy winners.
Coukd we pull off a Champions League Double ?
With some more research and reading the PL’s rule book on Academies, my @38 & 39 are directionally correct, except for the bit about Dowman not playing higher than the U-18s — in retrospect, obviously, as he has already played for the U-21s.
There seem to be institutional rules and competition rules regarding age. Further, UEFA, the FA and the Premier League don’t have a standard set of regulations or qualifying dates for determining a player’s age. The FA, bless its little cotton socks, even has two age qualification rules for its Youth Cup (see below), depending on the status of the teams involved in a tie. Go figure.
To deal with TTG’s point @41, the PL rules for Academies are clear-cut. The player’s age on August 31 determines the age group team the player is allocated to for the coming season. There is no provision for any exceptions. The club had no choice but to register Dowman with the U-15s as he was 14 on August 31. There are ceilings on how many players an Academy can register for each of its age group teams, so I guess the PL has to play this rule by the book.
The FA allows any registered player, including those registered by an Academy, to play in the FA Cup. If the player is under 16, they also need written permission from their parents and their school. That must be why they scrapped replays, to avoid midweek games on school nights. Paris Hamilton-Downes of Carshalton Athletic is the youngest player to have appeared in the FA Cup at 13 years, 11 months and one day.
Bizarrely, although Dowman could have played in the FA Cup against Man U this season, he was ineligible to play in the FA Youth Cup against Hertford Town. As Hertford is a non-league club, the rules are that only players who had turned 15 by the end of August (which Dowman had not) were eligible. However, he was eligible to play in a subsequent round against QPR, as the qualification for eligibility in games between league clubs is being under 18 at the end of August. Only the FA could come up with something so cockamamie.
To deal with TTG’s point @40, as for playing in the PL itself, the minimum age requirement is that a player has to be registered with an Academy team no younger than the U-16s. Nwaneri was born in March 2007, so he turned 15 in March 2022 and thus could be registered with the U-16s the following August 31. He made his debut against Brentford on September 28 when he was 15 years, five months and 28 days old.
Dowman, who was born on the last day of 2009, turned 15 on the last day of 2024, so he can’t be registered with the U-16s until next season. Even if we play on the first day of the season and he makes his PL debut, he would not break Nwaneri’s record as our youngest PL player, as he would then be 15 years, seven months and 16 days old.
Fantastic performance in Lyon. That must be up there in the pantheon of performances with the men going to Milan and scoring five.
TTG@43: It could even be a double over Barca. We can only hope.
Superb! Congratulations to the Arsenal Ladies.
Ned
That is great investigative work in an arcane area which as you suggest is ‘ cockamamie’ . Sometimes in trying to follow a logical path , logic disappears out of the window.
Somebody quite well connected with the club ( and who has seen Dowman play live several times ) is convinced we will see a lot of Dowman next season and believes he will be able to play wide in the first team. This would be very exciting but it also heaps a huge amount of pressure on very young shoulders . Marly Salmon the young centre back is also making very rapid progress but young centre backs need to be physically capable of matching opponents . Imagine a Mick Hartford or John Fashanu type coming up against a sixteen year old centre back. The grace period Arteta gave Saliba underlines the need to develop the physicality necessary to play at Premier League level.
You can be certain Dowman and Salmon are being targeted by lots of clubs offering them a ‘ pathway’ into first team football. You don’t have to have much of an imagination to envisage what Manchester United are likely to offer them for example .
TTG @47 – Downan would have to be potty to leave now, especially for United. He needs to be eased into first team football, and surrounded by very good players who can take some of the strain and protect him. Who is going to do that at United?
TTG@47: If all else fails, read the instructions!
Arteta was pilloried for not getting rid of the ‘waste of money’ Saliba and sending him out on loan. A few years on, it is now obvious that Arteta knew what he was doing and his critics did not.
*grabs opportune half-ton*
(While fairly annoyed I decided to shelve the trip to Lyon at the last minute, that came maybe just a few days too early)
@49 yeah, I remember reading the « why does Arteta hate Saliba? » mails at the time on various Gooner sites 😄 People have some very funny ideas sometimes.
It’s not a one size fits all thing either as MLS is busy demonstrating. Best left to experienced, smart professionals with a decent set of values, sit down at the back there Man Utd, we certainly don’t mean you
Well in for the 50 Ollie!
Well in for the half-ton, Ollie.
OM@52: I know that injuries to others have meant that MLS has probably had more playing time than envisioned this season, but Nwaneri’s minutes seem to be being managed. It also seems that there is a larger cohort of youngsters training with the first team than has been the case in the past. As you say, this all implies joined-up thinking on player development between Mertesacker and Arteta. It is also worth remembering that MLS (like Saka) was switched to left-back in the Academy long before his first team debut, again suggesting individual development paths are being thought through.
Some excellent drinks now we’ve moved on from the last match. Ned in particular has corralled some very fine investigative efforts out of the monks.
The women’s team were excellent against a Lyon side who didn’t have a good day at the office. I saw our women’s team play Barca at the Ems a few years back. We got turned over 4-0 and I was very impressed by Barca’s quality. That will be a tough job in the final, but I trust our team to do us proud and give themselves every chance. A CL final is all about going up against the best in the world, and that’s as true for Barca as it is for us.
To mention the elephant in the room wearing the red jersey…
Congratulations to Liverpool on their title triumph. The league table doesn’t lie and they are clearly out in front. They are a proper club and I’d much rather see them win it than Chelski or Shitty. Salah has been absolutely outstanding, and ultimately I think it is him that has made the difference. A very good team spearheaded by the best player in the world is tough to beat.
We’ve contended with a lot of nonsense, but 13 draws isn’t gonna win you a league. Pool look like they’re gonna end up with a very healthy points total. We’ve been beaten by a team that has been very good and to me this season doesn’t feel like a missed opportunity like it did when Leicester won it.
Also, Pool got shafted multiple times by the oilers when huge points tallies weren’t enough to gain them the titles they deserved, so as much as it is somewhat annoying for us to come 2nd for a third time in a row, only to a different team, its hard to argue that Pool don’t deserve to take advantage of an off year from Shitty and claim another title.
If we want to be PL champions next year then we will have to be better. That’s on us. Until then, fair play and lots of respect to Liverpool, who have been the best team in the league this year.
Point well made, GSD. I must agree that it is the right thing to do to congratulate the (mostly) justified league champs, VVD unawarded red card video (and especially all those vexingly ridiculous refereeing decisions against Arsenal notwithstanding.
GSD@57
A very classy note and a fair one .
We haven’t been close to the title this season and the number of draws is one of the reasons .I found it interesting that one of my friends who is a Liverpool season ticket holder was telling me that Liverpool went through last season feeling they were discriminated against in that infamous Tottnumb game where Diaz had a perfectly good goal disallowed . She thought there was a PGMOL conspiracy against them! They’ve suffered mightily at the hands of C130y and will rejoice if they get their just desserts . Her take on this season was that we have prioritised Europe ( something Martin Samuel claimed yesterday ). I don’t think we have but the Premier League is an awfully hard trophy to win .
Liverpool is a proper club and as far as I am concerned a much nicer place to visit than Manchester . I think we have a great chance of catching them next season but let’s do it as European champions!
GSD@57: Well said and elegantly put.
I also give Slot bonus points for acknowledging that Klopp left him a team in good repair. When Fergie and AW stepped down, they left their successors barely floating hulks of teams. Slot inherited a ship rebuilt to win the league. He just needed to trim the sails and set course, which he did to perfection.
TTG@59: I’ve read some ‘Pool fans saying that last season, as well as being afflicted by an acute case of PGMOL, they were bedevilled by injuries and ran out of steam at the end of the season. All of which sounds familiar.
GSD @57 – fair points, well made.
TTG – I think we may have prioritised Europe towards the end of the season simply because we haven’t had enough fit players to go full on at that and the league – so of necessity rather than by choice.
The players who have remained fit – or recently regained fitness – have had to play all games in both competitions. Almost our only choice has been teenagers stepping up from the academy – albeit brilliantly – some of whom have no senior experience at all. However willing they may be, all those games at elite level take a mental as well as a physical toll.
In addition to all the generally anticipated summer business to be done will be some tough decisions on how likely some players will be to regain reliable fitness levels. As we discovered back in the days of Ramsey, Wilshere, Ox and Walcott, you cannot carry a third of your squad and expect to win the league.
>>>>>>>