{"id":8922,"date":"2023-12-10T21:15:05","date_gmt":"2023-12-10T21:15:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8922"},"modified":"2023-12-11T16:14:00","modified_gmt":"2023-12-11T16:14:00","slug":"arsenal-fall-victim-to-more-var-controversy-in-villa-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=8922","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal Fall Victim to More VAR Controversy in Villa Loss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Due to a hiatus of some kind, the cause yet to be identified, our expected match report on the Villa match has not been forthcoming. I have therefore supplied a few hurried, reflective thoughts on what I thought was an unfortunate defeat and a very decent display against a side who had laid to waste the champions a few days before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game was settled as early as the seventh minute when a slick Villa move, typical of their fast start led to Bailey sliding the ball across to McGinn who swivelled and curled a shot into the top corner. Saka had already missed a presentable chance from a great Martinelli cross and after needing about 15 minutes to settle following the goal we began to dominate the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emi Martinez commented after the game that having outplayed City they \u201csuffered\u201d<\/em> for 85 minutes against Arsenal. That \u201csuffering<\/em>\u201d encompassed several moments when we looked certain to score. Martinelli beat Martinez to a floated ball and chipped towards the goal only for Diego Carlos to clear. \u00d8degaard fired a low shot which Martinez anticipated brilliantly as we put increasing pressure on their goal. Their offside trap was brilliantly (but frustratingly) executed and meant we had to time our forward forays extremely well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At half time, the game was completely in the balance and early in the second half Jes\u00fas was clearly, if accidentally, tripped in the penalty area by Luiz but VAR apparently failed to investigate it in any depth – a pivotal moment. \u00d8degaard missed a very good chance blazing over after excellent work by Havertz who is starting to add quality to our forward play with his ability to get into exciting positions in the inside left position. After Saka had a goal ruled out for offside after getting forward to chip over Martinez (again dismissed without much apparent investigation) the climactic moment of the game came just into injury time when Havertz bundled the ball home but the referee decided (from twenty yards behind play!) that he had hand-balled it. The subsequent detailed VAR investigation eventually concluded that Havertz had handled but Matty Cash, who had his paws on the ball before Havertz touched it had not committed an offence! It was a very marginal decision but I sensed we were going to get very little sympathy from the officials. Add to this a potential red card that wasn\u2019t awarded to Diego Carlos for an off-the-ball forearm smash on Nketiah and the inescapable conclusion had to be that it just wasn\u2019t our day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you lose a game like that there are a mixture of emotions. The disappointment of the defeat clouds thinking and analysis and can also distort your sense of the game. We lost to a very in-form side, extremely well organised by Emery, in front of a very passionate home crowd. We certainly deserved a point and had we equalised (earlier than the Havertz \u2018goal\u2019), we would certainly have had the momentum to go on to win the game. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This defeat was not a disaster. I had watched Liverpool earlier in the day and they played much worse against an inferior side and were losing until a ludicrous refereeing decision (a very soft red card) destabilised a Palace side who then had their keeper taken off injured. We are playing every bit as well as Liverpool are but had come through a similarly tight game at Luton with little to spare a few days before this one. Citeh struggled to impose themselves on Luton today so given that we dominated Villa there is every reason to believe we are very credible title challengers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have conceded (with Liverpool) the fewest number of goals in the division and have scored the fourth highest number of goals. If I have concerns, aside from vulnerability to injury of key players (which equally applies to our rivals), there are two things I would like Arteta to address. Despite Raya not committing any serious errors (other than dropping his first and only cross in the first half), my sense is that the defence does not perform with the same efficiency as it does with Ramsdale. I would prefer to see Ramsdale reinstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big question is whether we need a better striker than Jes\u00fas. Let me state that his movement, work-rate and flair are remarkable but he is not as clinical as I believe a centre-forward needs to be. He mis-controlled a huge opportunity in the second half. Top strikers need a better first touch. He is a hugely valuable player who can play wide and even in the 10 role but he isn\u2019t going to get as many goals as Haaland, Salah or even Watkins. Arsenal title winning sides during my time have had a central striker who gets twenty goals or more in the league.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radford and Kennedy, Alan Smith (twice), Anelka\/Wright and, of course, Henry did provide that goal threat. Jes\u00fas has two league goals this season and never topped twenty even playing for Citeh. I\u2019m not advocating ditching him (I would sell Nketiah) but I wouldn\u2019t have him as our focal point upfront. I think Ivan Toney\u2019s physicality would unsettle defences and he would provide a threat that Jes\u00fas cannot. It\u2019s not an original argument and is peddled by the media but I\u2019ve never worried about them. We need more presence in the box. Whether we have the FFP leeway to purchase him is another matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, to reiterate, this was an unfortunate and undeserved defeat. I am bored stiff by complaining about VAR and poor officiating even though I was again disappointed by the quality of the officials. We are in the mix and this title will probably be decided by small margins. The sort of margins that a high-scoring striker can provide! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Due to a hiatus of some kind, the cause yet to be identified, our expected match report on the Villa match has not been forthcoming. I have therefore supplied a few hurried, reflective thoughts on what I thought was an unfortunate defeat and a very decent display against a side who had laid to waste the champions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8922"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8922"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8922\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8935,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8922\/revisions\/8935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}