At half-time I was considering the tactical nuance of a game that changed completely with Ben White’s twenty-fifth minute injury. By the time the match finished in the 101st minute, tactics were the last thing from my mind. I was just trying to stop my hands shaking.
That was tough. We were really put through the ringer by a resolute West Ham side, aided and abetted by an uneven performance from Chris Kavanagh, who nonetheless made the correct decision at the end of the match, in a moment that may well have a big say in where the league ends up.
But that was at the end of an intriguing match. So, if I can still my racing thoughts and rewind a touch, let us begin…
Arteta named an unchanged side. In the early stages I could not believe just how intelligently Myles Lewis-Skelly positioned himself and used the ball. He has essentially made himself undroppable. His forward passing, his turning on the ball and even his understanding of when to play a simple wall pass are all those of a much more experienced player. If I were Tommy T the England manager, then I would be seriously considering starting MLS, Rice and Eze as my midfield in the World Cup. I’d also start Saka and White, if the latter’s injury is not as bad as we fear it could be.
We could have been ahead after eight minutes when Hermannson made an excellent save from a Trossard header after a Rice corner. The Belgian’s follow up hit the post. Soon after Todibo hit a dead ball into Arteta. Older and wiser than he was when an incident at Anfield played out a few seasons ago, our manager laughed it off, offered his hand, and focused on the match.
Soon after, we were close again as Mavropanos hooked a foot around a Calafiori header from a Rice free kick that had beaten the keeper. Saliba was just unable to make it to the rebound. We were seriously on top though. We had possession, control and were carving out chances. That was until White went down (no foul given) and looked pretty miserable as he was subbed off.
Here, Arteta mis-stepped. He brought on Zubi and moved Rice to right-back. I would assume his thinking was that if he brought on Mosquera in a straight swap for White, the Spaniard would be a far more defensive presence. So, if he moved Rice over there, then he would not have too much defending to do and would still be able to affect the game. I am sure he meant it as an attacking option. But it did not work. Rice was unable to progress the ball to Saka, passing back to Saliba far too often and leaving our talisman bereft of service. Worse still, was that we lost our grip on the midfield. Zubi was fine, but MLS gels more naturally with Rice at this point and we slightly lost our way. MLS had a learning moment as he was turned by Summerville – who ended the game with a yellow card but responsible for three of our players getting the same for taking him down – and he went on to take a shot that went wide but was still a sign of the match swinging somewhat; West Ham had not been taking shots!
Kavanagh got worse as the half went on. He ignored a blatant foul on the industrious Gyökeres right in front of him, then let a couple go on MLS. When he finally gave one for our nineteen-year-old, he indulged Soucek in a thirty second rant. Very odd.
On WhatsApp at half-time, wise heads opined that we needed to get Rice back into midfield. I suggested moving Zubi to right-back and telling him just to focus on feeding Saka. It is probably a marker of how brilliantly MLS has taken to his new role that none of us even considered the option that Arteta took, bringing on Mosquera to play RB, moving Rice back into midfield, and pulling MLS to left-back. I’d forgotten he could play there!
We were a bit better. Saka had a couple of wild shots from decent positions outside the box. As we passed the hour mark, Gooners worldwide got more tense. Personally, I went full-on positive. What I call the Love-Bomb. Every Arsenal action was greeted in my lounge with clapping, support and encouragement. We all deal with the anxious moments differently, and I just needed to stay super-positive and believe in the team. Or, at least, act as if I did!
After 67 mins, Zubi and Eze came off for Havertz and Ødegaard – good subs from Arteta, and easy enough for the substitute Zubimendi to take, as it was so obviously tactical. Ødegaard was immediately busy, linking up with Saka, Rice, Havertz and Mosquera high up the pitch on the right. It looked promising. Gyökeres headed over from a decent Saka cross (Unlucky Big Vik. Next one, next one!) Kavanagh started dishing out yellows like confetti at a wedding. Pablo handled the ball on the floor in the penalty box – it would have been given in Europe but no-one wants a penalty given for that. He was actively trying to get his hands out the way!
Saka made way for Madueke, who was bright and caused some chaos. In the 83rd minute, the aforementioned players on the right kept the ball and worked a wonderful opening. After some nice interchanges, Ødegaard got on the ball, played a give and go with Rice, and then managed to lay the ball off for Trossard to shoot past the keeper, the ball taking a slight deflection off Soucek. We all went wild. I screamed at the TV in joy and defiance and relief. That felt massive. There was no offside, no way VAR could disallow it, and we could celebrate that one at full tilt. I am surely not the only one who did.
There was a bit of Noni shithousing. I loved it. One of the West Ham assistant coaches got a red for something or other and before we knew it the board went up for 6 minutes of injury time. With barely two minutes to play, they sent the ball into the mixer where Mavropanos headed it down to Callum Wilson whose shot was goal bound until Gabriel made a last-ditch block off his shin. I gotta say, I was nervous as the corner came in. Bowen whipped it, Raya missed it, it bounced off Saliba’s knee to Wilson who fired it home. In real time it was hard to see if it had crossed the line before Rice blocked it. The replay showed it was two feet past the line. Arteta turned away.
But then VAR had a look. It soon became clear that Pablo had blocked Raya’s arm from punching/catching the ball. I never look at what anyone else has said before I write my reports, so I don’t know if this decision has proved controversial (although, in these days where the media try to whip up a frenzy about anything and everything, I assume it has sparked mass outrage) but there is no way to say this other than that it is a clear foul. The only issue was the time it took VAR to send Kavanagh to the screen and him to make a decision. But I suppose they all knew how important a call it was.
Strangely, after the decision was correctly given, and the goal disallowed, my TV showed for the first time a reverse angle showing Todibo clearly pulling Raya’s shirt. I’m not sure why the ref wasn’t shown that, but two fouls for the price of one ain’t a bad deal for Raya. Never in doubt.
Kavanagh kept adding time, but in the 101st minute he blew the whistle and we had won the match. There will be those who suspect we had also won the league.
Personally, I am going to do what the team should do and just take it one game at a time. This was the result we needed, and in the coming days (eight of them before our next match!) there will be time for analysis. For all that we went through today, we got the result. No-one expected this to be easy, but we march on. It is still in our hands.
Until next time, ‘holics.
I should point out, just for the sake of David Raya, that he made a save from Fernandes in the 78th minute that may well have won us the league. The lad was through on goal and, if we’re honest, he takes a poor shot to the near post when there was a lot of space to the far post. Our keeper does all he can, but ultimately the shot is bad more than the save is good. However, when writing the report, my brain completely refused to acknowledge this action, even though I read it in my notes twice. It was just too horrible to countenance, and I could not relive the trauma of seeing him burst through. If that had gone in, who fancied us to score twice?
Fine margins indeed.
Quality report, Dino, and delivered at the kind io warp speed indicative of the fact that there is no shortage of Dilithium crystals available in Paris to power your pc.
Can only concur with everything you say above. Well played.
Super rapid report GSD. Just got home. As I was saying when the shutters came down
Never in doubt!
I need a very large gin and tonic!
It’s been a long season
Top notch, C100!
Great report GSD on an excruciating experience
https://talksport.com/football/4246819/abbi-summers-storms-out-arsenal-west-ham-var-decision/
Particularly for those of you who want to understand the quality of tabloid sport reporting watch this utter fiasco from the TalkSport ‘ coverage’ of the match. We’ve seen the quality of sports reporters drop through the gutter .
I will return to discuss the game when my pulse rate has dropped – it’s Dein to 350 per minute !
Dein- a Freudian slip ! Pulse now 270
A very fine summary of a game in which the Arsenal employed their ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card to secure an invaluable three points, piss off Irons Man Pep and then set the compass for ‘Steer Steady Toward the Title’.
We need to win the next two games. The GOOJF card supply is exhausted as is Mikel’s supply of fortune cookies. I think the 115ers will register six more points, we need to do the same before we win the golden version of old Big Ears in Budapest.
We can do that, preferably with MLS in midfield, Hincapie at left back and a liberal sprinkling of Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz at the top end of the field. And, whisper it, Saka rested and catching rays on the bench until Budapest.
Well said Wayne Rooney!
https://x.com/footysm/status/2053541931955695854?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
I expected the game to be tight, WHam clawing to escape the drop and all that but that game was beyond tense. I dislike VAR as much as the next guy but it served its purposes today. And like GSD said in the first post, we have have Raya to thank for yet another clean sheet. Two more wins before the promised land!
That’s great, C100 at 9, but may I suggest it’s written by a media team operating his account. When you listen to him speak it is a stream of gibberish and non sequiturs.
Stick it in the National Gallery
https://x.com/afcnewsroom/status/2053547559680188743?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
Otherwise known as word salad CER.
IU4GN – the problem isn’t VAR. VAR is just a load of cameras, providing incontrovertible, factual evidence of contentious situations. The problem is using the same inaccurate, inconsistency ridden – I’m being kind and will leave out the rest of what I really think for legal reasons- poor quality PGMOL-captive referees to administer it. There ought to be a Chinese Wall between VAR and PGMOL with transparent communications – in stadium and in TV and other media – to ensure there is no confusion/collusion.
SP@13- thank you for correcting my verbosity. I blame post-match gins and tonic…
C100@12- I’m not usually a fan of performance art, but that is a thing of beauty.
Thanks GSD, great stuff at bullet train speed, a glass of cooling
refreshment on the bar for you sir.
Time to regroup for the team now but with a precious three
points and another clean sheet.
It’s a real bastard about Benny Blanco as he was just getting
back to his best form but on we go nevertheless, three more to play.
Fantastic report from Frank Stubbs. Sums up why West Ham away is a difficult visit.
Believe me visiting West Ham now was nothing like as unpleasant or dangerous as visiting West Ham in the seventies when it was not only a deeply hostile environment but a rundown ground I’ve been to the London Stadium a few times and it isn’t a football stadium – but it might be our home if we decide to extend the Emirates .
Nobody seems to be looking at the Bournemouth / C130y game just after the Cup Final . I’d hate to have to win at the Vitality at the monent. It is Iraiola’s last game in charge and most importantly they could get Champions League football with a sixth place finish . This is when I believe we will clinch the title .C130 y will beat Palace and then win the Cup but I expect them to drop at least two points against Bournemouth .
Thanks gsd for a rapid and descriptive review of this afternoon’s match. After a bright first quarter it became a good old tussle with both teams wanting 3 points for opposite reasons. Leo’s well taken goal a few minutes from near the end was priceless and it was a most pleasant experience not to be fuc*ed over by the PGMOL was an unusual & welcome experience – disallowing the Hammer’s goal a very correct decision.
Time to rest & regroup..
Thanks GSD – a fine and super quick report.
I absolutely love the togetherness of this team. Sure, we haven’t always played flowing, exciting football and at times, like today, I’ve almost had to stop watching for a minute or two just to release the tension. But this has been the season of finding a way. A continuing catalogue of injuries. Players trying to find their form after long absences. New players having to play their way into a new team and a new system. Some players having to wait a long while to get their chance. Criticism from all around however we play, whatever we do.
But just look at those players and manager together every single time we find a way to win. Everyone knows their job. Everyone has a place. Brilliant.
Quick-fire and sharp-eyed, Dino. Bravo.
As I said in the previous drinks, Raya was fouled; end of. And 1-0 to the Arsenal: The Breakfast of Champions,
What Ned said @22.
I have been enjoying some of the wholesale
whining about our win, I am getting the feeling
that some people out there don’t wish us well 😂🥳
@19 Seems a reasonable analysis TTG,
Cheaty will struggle at Bournemouth.
Thanks for a super-fast and most enjoyable match report, GSD. The speed of its production left me as breathless as I was during that VAR review when I was virtually catatonic. Too much excitement isn’t good for you.
Given the culture of Arsenalphobia that pervades the country, it was, as MA8 observed, brave of Darren England and Chris Kavamagh to overturn that goal. Objective analysis of the pictures and sequence conclusively show that Raya was deliberately impeded and prevented from catching the corner ball. Nevertheless, in the hours since we have seen and heard the most pathetic whataboutery from people who should know better – Shay Given, take a bow for your tribe. FFS even Neville called the foul as soon as the ‘tape’ was replayed.
Hey ho!
No-one likes us.
But we don’t care.
Onward.
With determination.
A good analysis of the pressure on Darren England at the end of this very objective piece from the Beeb:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0m2rkwm87po
Something not too many people have been saying. Five games in fifteen days since the loss at the Etihad. Four wins and a draw in Madrid. Seven goals scored, one conceded.
Gutsy. Resilient. Strong.
Keenos succinctly sums it up.
There’s some great stuff around today. This one’s by Tom Curren
https://open.substack.com/pub/redstory/p/one-nil-forever?r=17skr0&utm_medium=ios
Two great reads there, C100 @29 & 30. Thanks for the links.
Thanks for those two links, C100. Couple of thoughts prompted by them.
First, all those saying that VAR shouldn’t have been involved in the first place as the referee hadn’t made a ‘clear-and-obvious error,’ are ignoring that that is only one of the conditions that justify a VAR review. The other is the usually forgotten ‘serious missed incident’. Not noticing an attacker holding down a goalkeeper’s arm as he attempts to catch the ball unequivocally counts.
Second, the ‘Arsenal do this all the time without being penalised’ line is just bogus. Yes, Arsenal players do a lot of blocking and jostling of opposition goalkeepers to manoeuvre them into disadvantageous positions at corners, but they do it before the ball is kicked, when it is not a foul, as the ball is not in play. That may be exploiting a loophole in the laws, but so be it. There is a reason that our corner takers raise an arm before kicking the ball. It is always the same signal, so it does not indicate where the ball is going. Thereafter, opposition keepers are rarely fouled directly, which is why none of the critics can find any comparable footage to the foul on Raya.
Nor, NBN @32, have any of the critics produced a comparable incident on which an Arsenal player holds down the opposition goalkeepers arms to prevent him catching the ball. VAR ensured the correct decision, dashing the schadenfreude of thousands.
Adam Clery’s take on the scandal of the century:
A good a time as any to remind ourselves of the 15 games before Arteta took over:
DLDWLDLDLDDLDWL
(Courtesy Gingers for Limpar)
Clery makes my point exactly: crowding a keeper isn’t the same as holding a keeper. His point that the previous occasion on which a goal was disallowed for holding the goalkeeper was when Benny Blanco was the one penalised was particularly well made.
I don’t know how you deal with his broader point about 15 six-foot-plus trained athletes contesting a space of less than 100 sq metres at every corner, short of restricting the number of players allowed in the six-yard box/penalty area/attacking half, or moving the spot where corners are taken from to somewhere else, say the halfway line or centre circle.
I’ve been reading Arsenal content all day, as well as watching the whole game back. Well I am retired. So here’s Mike McDonald.
Ned @36, this Athletic article (£) considers some options for addressing the problem of multiple wrestling contests at corners:
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7268841/2026/05/11/premier-league-corners-rule-change-arsenal-west-ham/
One of ex-ref Graham Scott’s suggestions takes inspiration from penalty corners in field hockey. For those, a maximum of five defenders must start behind the goal line, and the opposition’s attackers must be positioned outside the shooting circle. Some kind of legislation using the six-yard and 18-yard boxes as zones is a possibility.
Thanks for the many links gents!
And best of luck to Beth Mead who is leaving the club
after many seasons.
Bath@38: Thanks for that link. The really radical solution would be to abolish corners. I haven’t yet been able to find any contemporary discussion of why they were introduced in 1872. Would the game be any worse as a spectacle if they were scrapped?
Creating more space in the penalty area by limiting the number of players allowed there at corners would be great for us. Big Gabi would be up for winning the Ballon d’Or.
Personally I find the idea of messing with the rules on corners to get round the fact that referees simply don’t apply existing rules regarding obstruction and pulling/pushing as more than a little putting the cart before the horse.
I think abolishing corners probably wouldn’t make a lot of difference
with the increasing use of long throws.
As I recall Webb said at the start of the season that there would be a lot
more penalties this season as the rules would be applied more strictly at
corners. That doesn’t seem to have been done and should be tried first
I think.
CER. If refs applied the existing rules at corners then every single corner would result in either a free kick for the defending side or a penalty. Without exception.
I’m not sure how that would improve things.
Dino@43- because it would result in behaviour changing back to the way it used to be when referees did not tolerate this. Most Saturdays on UK tv they do re-runs of 70’s and 80’s episodes of The Big Match. Quite simply, there was not pulling and pushing on a colossal scale. This was because it was not tolerated as it is not within the rules of Association Football. Don’t apply the rules, get a different game.
Thanks Dino
This topic has probably been done to death now but if the refs early next season start awarding enough free kicks or penalties for whichever obvious infringement they see then teams will eventually likely stop doing it. Radical shit like limiting players from the six, twelve, eighteen-yard box is a fundamental change to address a problem that referees have now an answer to use – see above.
A bigger question for me was what on earth MA thinking with the Benny Blanco/Rice sub? Has he tried anywhere to explain this – it didn’t make sense at the time to me and still doesn’t? Dino offered one opinion, are there any others?
UTA
If the refs make their annual 3 month early season crackdown about corners this year then it might turn back the tide eventually. But it’s at least as likely that they’d end up making a bunch of unfair decisions that have a big impact on the league, before giving up and allowing teams to get away with stuff later in the season that had been penalised earlier on. Like the Rice and Trossard red cards a couple of years ago.
If they do decide to go that route then we had better be prepared and smart about it, so we are not the team who gets shafted by a new implementation (again).
I do think it’s a better solution to try to referee the existing rules rather than change them, but it would be carnage whilst they get to grips with it. Shay Given’s head would explode.
Noosa. I’ve been a bit baffled that almost no-one else seems to have followed Arteta’s thinking (even if it obviously didn’t work out). James McNicholas mentioned the same idea, ie that Rice would be able to push into midfield from RB and help dominate the game from there, in the Arsecast Extra, but no-one else seems to have picked up on it.
It was a tactic that failed miserably, and as we have one rational explanation for the thinking behind it, I am not sure we are likely to find a host of others. I’ve actively been looking for anyone else’s thoughts, and not seen any other opinions at all. Indeed, most people have simply said some version of “I’ve got no idea what Arteta was thinking.”
Frankly, we can be glad it didn’t cost us, thrilled that Arteta won’t make that daft mistake in the CL final if our one fit RB (Mosquera) gets an injury, and move on.
GSD@47: Adrian Clarke flicks at an explanation in his video breakdown of the game. In short, his view (and I paraphrase) is that Rice at right-back and Zubi playing in the midfield wouldn’t change the shape of the team, in which White had been playing high to support Saka and pin back Sommerville, whereas bringing on Mosquera would give the backline a more defensive cast (Mosquera generally does not push as high as White). Whatever Arteta’s thinking, there is universal agreement that putting Rice at right-back didn’t work, as evidenced by his changes at half-time.
I was just passing and
There was this fifty laying there so I took it yer honour
Well in for an insouciant half-ton, OM.
Cheers Ned. Interesting thought from Clarke. Mosquera plays RB more like Timber in a positional sense. He often pushes up into an inside forward kind of space. Which is a bit different to White. The Rice sample size is a bit small to say. Although I was struck that he (almost?) never managed to progress the ball to Saka.
Well played OM. A fine fifty and a very reasonable defence.
Also, re applying the rules at corners: no one person can watch 5 or more duels simultaneously. So if we do want the current rules to be enforced we will have to accept a VAR review at almost every corner. Or find some other way to support the refs. Dunno what though.
Ben White banjaxed
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c0m28g07m39o
Dino@54- I don’t see why. If the referee gives it for one offence the message will still get through that it is not acceptable. That may take weeks for some teams. In which case they will suffer more penalties and cards. Eventually they will get the hang of it. This is an offence which barely existed 40 years ago. The rules are the same. The application of them is not.
Wretched luck for Benny Blanco. Best wishes to him for a full recovery. One consequence is that it might take him off the transfer market this summer, which will complicate the decision about whether or not to buy another right-back.
CER & GSD: If referees start dishing out exemplary penalties and free kicks for malarky at corners next season, I wonder if attackers will push the boundaries of provocation of defenders. The cost-benefit analysis is intriguing, given the high value of winning a penalty compared to conceding a free kick.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7272547/2026/05/12/arsenals-ticket-premier-league-title-burnley-palace/
Ticket security and prices for last two games
To be fair, those are black market prices. By comparison, a ticket for Game 7 of last year’s World Series averaged $3,868 on reseller sites, approximately £2,900 at the then exchange rates.
That is a shame for Benjamin.
I guess Mosquera for the last two league games and
a race against time to get Timber ready for the CL final.
Hasn’t Calafiori moved over to right back in a couple of matches? No disrespect to Mosquera but he lacks the offensive side, is probably a bit slow for PSG, and has a tendency for rash decisions. For PSG I think Calafiori might be a better choice. At least once or twice a match he seems to end up over at right back anyway. Hincapie can start at left back.
And here’s my solution for all of the wrestling in the box. Any foul in the box, whether it’s related to the play of the ball or not, is a yellow card. Only the referee can call the foul and issue the yellow card. Maybe with a focus on shirt pulling and holding a player with the hand. Of course they seem to test new rules on Arsenal, so maybe that’s not a good idea.
No doubt but that it is a shame for Benjamin but hopefully not for the Arsenal.
On another note, we are gonna do this. For once, the fates are with us. 🤞
ecg@62: Calafiori has played at right centre back on occasions in senior football, but the last time he played as a right-back was with Roma’s U-17s. Hincapié has also occasionally played as a right-centre back, but has never played as a right back, as far as I can see. Our depth chart for RB in Timber and White’s absence is Mosquera, then Marli Salmon.
Calafiori played as a sub at right back in a game last season but I can’t remember who it was against but it was at home and I was there …..and he looked very good. But Kvaratshkelia is tte best winger in the world imo .
CER. If the refs crack down on corners then the public (driven by the media) will be looking for consistency (which is becoming less a reasonable expectation than a stick to beat the game with). And it will be impossible to be consistent if the ref just gives a foul for the first offence he registers.
For example, if a referee gives a free kick against an attacker because he sees him pulling a defender’s shirt and it turns out that a different attacker had his shirt pulled by a defender two seconds earlier, then the ref should have awarded a penalty.
So, if there are 3 fouls from the attacking team and 3 from the defending team (fairly common at the moment) and we rely just on one referee with one pair of eyes, then it’s going to be arbitrary and inconsistent which fouls get given.
It would feel like pot luck, and fans would have no idea how it works at all. As we’ve seen from other areas, especially VAR itself, this leads to a lot of frustration etc. And it would have a material impact on the league when these decisions are wrongly awarded, unless VAR is used extensively to ensure they are right.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ludoVzr0jy4?si=upiDcAUQx495eoZH
Here’s an excellent link showing where all this corner stuff began. I highly recommend it (only 2 mins long). We’ve now got to a point where refs have done a poor job of officiating the rules to such a degree that it’s hard to row back from.
I agree with CER’s point that the rules themselves are fine and we don’t need to mess with them just because the referees have got us in a muddle by failing to enforce them. But I also think it may be a difficult/delicate process to get back to where we want to, and I don’t want to see an entire PL season defined by the efforts to sort out officiating from corners, least of all in a season when I think we would be favourites to win the league if it were a level playing field. If they screw this up (and who trusts PGMO?) then we have the most to lose.
I don’t wanna see Calafiori at right back. It’s from the same school of over-complication that switched Rice there on Sunday. Cala isn’t a right-back. His body is unfortunately injury prone, and it’s easy to imagine how performing all his actions in reverse on the wrong side of the pitch would just hurt him (especially as the Georgian lad twists him up). Then we’d be a sub down and have Mosquera on anyway. Cala has no history or rhythm playing triangles with Saka and Rice or Odegaard. No history of when to overlap on the right. He doesn’t have any automatisms with anyone who plays on that side. So he’s got nothing to fall back on when he’s put under the inevitable pressure PSG will apply.
Meanwhile, we’d lose the Trossard/Cala connection that looks so good on the left. That would be a mistake.
Just keep it simple, play Mosquera (who is an excellent player), and remember that the best way to nullify Kvaratshkelia is systematically as a team. Make him defend, keep the ball away from him, play on the front foot etc. If we setup to let him run repeatedly at our right back then there isn’t any player who’s going to win that battle all night. Even Timber got roasted for 25 mins last year, before he got back on top, and he’s the best there is.
Thanks for an excellent link, GSD @67 and I fully agree with you @68. If we must play against the Georgian wizard, Kvaratskhelia without either of our two top right backs then we should play Mosquera and hope he has the game of his life.
As for dealing with the bedlam at corners, I’m again in the keep it simple camp. We don’t need to adapt hockey rules, we need to apply the laws of this game: Start the season awarding free kicks and yellow cards for holding and grappling by attackers unless there is an obvious offence by a defender that draws the referee’s attention once the kick has been taken. The message will soon get through as it did when free kicks were awarded when keepers picked up pass-backs when that law was introduced. After a week or two you never saw it again.
Much sense spoken about replacing like with like. I’d quite like someone to put the Georgian in row B after 5 minutes. Not that we have any horrible bustards in our team to do that.
On another note imagine if Arsenal got caught properly cheating like Southampton.
RIP Peter Simpson aged 81. 478 appearances forThe Arsenal. Double winner.
https://x.com/arsenal/status/2054524588378521687?s=61&t=cVFjCyGkt4y-Ne45LtfqkQ
RIP Stan. Massively underrated player.
What Bath said @72. Very sad news.
Sad news at the passing of Peter “stan” Simpson – one of the Arsenal greats in the late 60s & early/mid 70s. He was the quiet fellow who just got on with the job and formed a great CB pairing with Frank McClintock. Should have had dozens of England caps but had Bobby Moore & Norman Hunter ahead of him ( and less internationals matches played iirc). You could often see him having a few pints in the White Hart at Southgate after a match. That pub was often full of Arsenal players in the 60s to 80s who would often live in that part of North London ( and sp*rs players as well). Stan, you were loved by those who knew RIP
GSD@67: Thanks for that link. A point well made. I also think that Arteta, who is a student of tactics in other sports and a good friend of LA Rams head coach Sean McVay, has distilled some of the blocking and tackling of American football into his thinking.
TTG@65: Were you thinking of the game against Newcastle where Calafiori replaced Saliba at right centre back?
No disagreement with you that Kvaratskhelia is the best winger in the world at the moment. Would love to see him in an Arsenal shirt.
SP@70: It doesn’t bear thinking about.
Any suggestions from anyone about the appropriate punishment for Southampton if the EFL’s independent disciplinary commission finds the club spied on Middlesbrough before the play-off semi-final, as charged? Administrative elimination from the play-offs? A fine, and if so, how big? A points deduction (which presumably wouldn’t apply in the PL and would have to wait until Soton’s next relegation to the Championship)? Bans or suspensions from football for coaching staff?
Or will m’learned friends be able to argue that it was a rogue employee who was responsible for the alleged incident, and thus the club has no charges to answer? Is that the sound of a bus being started up for someone to be thrown under, I hear?
RIP Peter Simpson. I never got to see him play but enjoyed reading this profile of the man written by none other than Goonerholic himself:
I’ve written an obituary for the Gooner Online tomorrow. Both Holic and I loved Peter Simpson. We’ve had some wonderful defenders in my time as a Gooner and Peter is right up there with the very best of them p
RIP Peter
Ned @76
It was definitely a substitution at right back. It was last season and I think he replaced Timber . It was for about twenty minutes and he did well.
That is very sad news about Peter Simpson, and thanks for the link bt8.
Good memories of a great player
Thanks a lot for that link bt8 @78. A lovely blast from the past and it’s nice to see that many contributors to the Drinks in that piece are still alive and kicking and contributing to the Goonerverse here and there.
Wot Bath said@82. RIP Peter.
TTG@79- I’ll be looking for the Gooner post tomorrow morning. Nice one.
TTG@80: One more possibility: away to Newcastle in the second leg of the League Cup; Calafiori replaced Timber, who was playing right back, in the 78th minute. We were 4-0 down in the tie at that point, and Arteta may have switched to a back three, with Calafori playing the right-sided defender.
bt8@78: Thanks for posting that link, both for the memories of a player who was indeed the best English defender never to play for England, but also for the chance to re-read the Guv’nor and be reminded of the constantly high standard of writing that he sustained. It was a piece just so elegantly and economically written.
I saw in the drinks that we were nominating all-time XI’s. A diversion to revisit in the off-season, perhaps,
Very sad to hear about the death of Peter Simpson.Great player and ahead of most in his position at the time. Odd that he never played for England.
Had a great partnership with Frank McLintock. ❤️
Ned,
Well done on your cup win Ned, a tip of the hat 🎩
The monkish double is on….
Ned
It was at the Stadium of Stone and in the early part of the season
The GHF Predictathon leaderboard for Matchweek 36 has been posted. Did you hit the wall or power through? You know where to find out…
OM@88: Cheers. Generous and appreciated. Four form teams in the semis. No chickens being counted by any means.
TTG@89: The monks are on it. Either the records or your memory are being a bit how’s your father…
https://www.onlinegooner.com/articles/view/peter-simpson-rip-to-a-true-arsenal-legend
I attach my obituary for the Online Gooner for Peter Simpson
Takes stock of the onrushing press. Passes calmy back to the keeper.
…with seemingly infinite time, like a modern day Liam Brady, scans the pitch, acknowledges TTG’s fine obituary, then hits a smart reverse pass to…
Slips the ball laterally within two feet from the opposition striker to…
who tries to sprint up the wing, spots Margo Robbie in Diamond Level, exits straight down the tunnel, of love, and leaves the ball to …..
Jogs up to take over from Trev – on the pitch, I should add (and acknowledges a great piece on Stan by Peter with a bow) – and swings a long high curling pass across the field to…
Margot Robbie! who in fleeing Trev in Diamond level has rushed on to the
pitch, and inadvertently deflected the ball to the one
and only……
..receives from Bath and, with time seemingly standing still gives a wink to Hathaway in the crowd in a desperate attempt to win her over from Trossard. On failing abysmally slides a pass through for…
BANG!
Accepts the adulation of the Arsenal hotties and shakes hands formally with CER for the fine assist. Attempts the Gyökeres mask but pokes self in eye and collapses to the ground in a hysterical fugue.
Well in for the ton, bath. Here’s mud in your eye.
TTG@92: A touching remembrance of a man who was probably not well-known outside Gooners of a certain age, but is remembered for being the outstanding player that he was by all who saw him play.
TTG – lovely tribute to Peter Simpson 👏🏻
I would place him above all those other centre halves in your list and possibly on par with Bobby Moore. For me, he was the early English prototype of Beckenbauer. Despite possessing, as you say, a thunderous tackle, he was a cultured player and relied far more on his timing whenever possible to win the ball, and he then had the ability to play out from the back rather than the customary hoof of his era. Arteta would have loved him.
RIP Peter Simpson.
A mainstay of my first years going to Highbury.
Great tribute TTG.
Well in Bath with some masterful assistance from your colleagues leading up to the goal. Made those of us in the crowd proud to associated with the workers of such craftsmanship. 🍷
Football can be so random. Thinking of Peter Simpson and the competition he faced for England selection also makes me think that if Duncan Edwards had lived, Bobby Moore would probably be remembered only as a West Ham player.
If anyone is going to win the World Cup because they can always score more goals than their defence lets in, it is going to be France. This is a ridiculous amount of forward talent to have in one squad:
Maghnes Akliouche (Monaco), Bradley Barcola (Paris St-Germain), Rayan Cherki (Man City), Ousmane Dembele (Paris St-Germain), Desire Doue (Paris St-Germain), Michael Olise (Bayern Munich), Kylian Mbappe (Real Madrid), Jean-Phillipe Mateta (Crystal Palace), Marcus Thuram (Inter Milan)
Ned
Today’s Times solves the Calafiori mystery! He switched from left to right back in a Champions League tie last autumn ( 2024) in the second half. The opponents were interesting …..PSG but Kvaratskhelia had not yet joined them
As I remember he did a very decent job but marking the Georgian is a thankless task especially in a match of that magnitude.
Arteta is suggesting Timber has a chance of being fit but it would be a big risk to start him in Budapest
TTG that’s a lovely tribute to Peter Simpson. Like others of our vintage he was truly appreciated as a wonderful player and club servant, may he rest in peace.
Ned, that is truly formidable array of attacking talent in the French team. If Deschamp gets a tune out of them they should be favourites to win the WC.
TTG@109: That would explain why it doesn’t show up in the records as Calafiori played the whole game.
Reading the runes of an Arteta press conference is a fool’s errand when it comes to injuries. I would be delighted to see Timber play again this season, but I would be equally surprised. Arteta might just be trying to keep Luis Enrique guessing.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7253471/2026/05/12/raheem-sterling-feyenoord-next-club/?source=user_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1.ilA.qJaZ.958wJGckrBfZ
The very sad case of Raheem Sterling . If you can imagine it he has deteriorated from last season !
A good read and a sad story, TTG @112. Thanks for the link.
There’s also an excellent article on Ben White in the Athletic (£):
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7272743/2026/05/12/ben-white-arsenal-injury/
Thanks for the link Bath, I loved the bit at the beginning when that hapless halfwit
Neville said “ I don’t know the plan at Arsenal. The recruitment has been really poor”
He should have stopped after the first sentence 😂
Thanks TTG @112, nothing wrong with Sterling’s attitude I think and I kept waiting
for it to come right for him at Arsenal but it just didn’t. The stat about the number
of games before he was 30 seems relevant to me but who knows really.
TTG@112 & Bath@114: thanks for the links. I thought the Sterling article raised more questions than it answered, but it is quite remarkable how Sterling’s career has imploded. I wonder if the lesson is that even the best players need a settled place in the right team to thrive.
I think there are going to be a few sad goodbyes on the Arsenal women’s team today.
Beth Mead and Katie McCabe spring to mind but I think there are a couple of others
too. Of course they will always have the memory of a CL win to enjoy 😃
I see the corrupt scheisters have collected another meaningless trophy. Why the effort? All that running around. All that creative accountancy. Why not just go and buy another sparkly gong in the jewellery mall in Abu Dhabi?
Our recruitment was excellent in the summer but one improvement would have been to buy Semenyo instead of Madueke
Amazingly Alonso has agreed to go to Chelsea
Dr. F, Pangloss, the Aristocrat and Uply share the GHF Predictathon award for correctly predicting the winner of the FA Cup.
TTG@120: If Alonso has taken the Chelsea job, then Iraola, Silva and Glasner have dodged a bullet. I assume it also means that the Bindippers are sticking with Slot.
Any useful injuries in the FA Cup final no one gives a shit about?
SP
None that I saw but Rodri was only fit enough to play an hour
I had been hoping for a nice bout of extra time,
but never mind.
@122 perhaps Salah leaving will help Slot as much as Salah staying helped
him last season…….
>>>>>>>