RVP’s 2nd booking/sending off was one of the worst decisions I’ve ever seen. 1 second from whistle to shot! Disgraceful.
I think we have to accept that the Whores are little more than mid-90s era Man Utd as far as class (or lack thereof) goes. The surrounding of the ref and getting in his face with every incident/decision. The diving. The dirty fucker that grabbed RVP by the throat - yet escaped punishment. Dani Alves was unbelievably not booked despite following through on the man and leaving markers in with nearly every tackle.
Without a doubt they were the better team, hands down, but alot of that is down to their high impact play; they pass and move alot but when they lose possession they chase you down with 3 or 4 players very quickly. They could not have kept that tempo up for 90 minutes if we had had 11 on the pitch. It’s no coincidence that we have scored against them late on in recent games. They get tired. And if that late great ball from Jack had landed in RVP’s path rather than Bendtner’s? Well, who knows, huh?
Even though we were outplayed I still feel cheated by that result last night. UEFA should punish the ref but they won’t, they got what they wanted, the Whores are still in the CL. Disgraceful.
As for our players, after RVP went off I was quite proud of how some of them battled and gave everything, in particular young Jack. Even AA23 was back there busting tackles in the box!! And both Kos and Johan did fairly well against a relentless tide of Whores (bit like Benjy in Paris in 06!!
)
I thought Rosicky, Diaby and Sagna were appalling though. Diaby seems to think he is Vieira and can just take his time on the ball. Unfortunately he is lacking Paddy’s ability. And Sagna looked like a scared child out there. Rosicky just brings nothing to the table. Nothing.
Still cannot believe Cesc tried a fucking back heel on the edge of our box.... Back in the day, George Graham would have thrown a table at him in the dressing room afterwards!
My big concern now is our (probably) inevitable collapse. With the Manc Filth on Saturday in the Cup and some real banana skin PL games coming up (Scum away, Filth home and the resurgent Mousers) I have this awful feeling we will once again spiral out of all comps in a period of two weeks or so. It’s like Groundhog Season.
And alot of (maybe all of) this could have been avoided by just adding a couple of quality signings last summer and in January. No need to break the bank. Just sign a couple of experienced quality players to strengthen the squad. I’m as frustrated as a nun with a wide on!
What pissed me off as much as the refs decision was to see Wenger pat Bendtner on the back as he walked off the pitch at the end, Barry big bollocks cost us the match as much as the ref!!!! In the (not so) old days these were the types of games that we gloryed in backs to the wall, under-dog type games where we needed a goal and invariably got it WHL '71, Anfield '89, Copenhagen '94 step forward 21st century Arsenal with Captain Wenger and Corporal Bendtner - "it was the ref" :awnker:
