Oh there was plenty of pathetic rolling around on the ground from both sides - perhaps we should compare with Ted Hill playing for Bath yesterday. I agree it was risable by Macallister (but he's an Argie isn't he?), but footballers seem to do that sort of thing all the time..
Even Arsenal legend Ian Wright reckoned it was a clear cut penalty.
Credit to Arsenal's defence, Liverpool failed dismally to make Rea work.
Arsenal fans tend to have a mahoosive chip on their shoulder regarding other clubs that have been successful in the last 20 years and it's pretty tiresome. Then there was Arteta moaning about a manger not remaining in his techincal zone when he spends 75 minutes of most matches outsife it!
And last season they got away with a ridiculous number of fouls in both penalty boxes on their way to the title. At least this year they seem to score from open play.
I suspect you will be champions again, and given the displays against Chelsea and today, will have deserved it.
Lol. Laugh or cry time.
Yes, we have a chip on our shoulder about City pumping a billion quid into their team illegally. Of course we do, we scrimped and saved to build our stadium while City picked our best players off with their illegal bottomless pockets. Chelsea did similar but mainly pre the rule changes (their recent fine was ridiculously low). I'm still amazed that they were allowed to balance their books by selling a hotel and their women's team, to ...checks notes... themselves. Most of the country ridiculed Wenger for his "fourth place is like a trophy" comments, but he kept us there so long while Chelsea and City were burning notes. We've not got issue with Man U or Liverpool in that period - other than standard footballing rivalry.
As for the rest of it - yes, it should have been a penalty, VAR is crap. Yes, the ref was shoot. We should have been playing ten men, and none of our players did anything nearly as embarrassing as Mac Allister trying to get a player sent off.
The amount of hate Arteta gets is ridiculous. Every manager I've seen is out of their box regularly, he complained because he got carded and others seemingly don't. And what a pitifully minor thing for fans to get upset about. Proper frothing at the mouth angry because a bloke steps over a painted white line like everyone else does. I'm reminded that there's still a narrative about "that time Arteta blamed the ball for losing a cup match". People hear what they want to hear and see what they want to see. He'd been directly asked after a loss if he thought the ball (think it was a Puma ball?) played a part in the loss (our passing uncharacteristically sloppy, as was our shooting) and he said something along the lines of "it takes some getting used to, but it was the same ball for both teams" and gave birth to a thousand headlines.
The stuff about last season is just incorrect, at least when it comes to attacking corners - we weren't fouling - or even wrestling - at all. The evolution of how we attack corners has gone through a couple of stages, because a few years back when we started getting good at them and doing what had been done to us everyone suddenly noticed Ben White and wanted the rules changed. On defensive corners we were often wrestling, with contact started pre ball in play, so not a foul. Not always us initiating it either. Personally, I don't like it, but that's the rules. It's a product of years of moaning about not being allowed to be physical anymore. Refs were told to let things go and this is where we are now. Arsenal didn't invent it, we just got very good at it. It's ironic really, as we'd spent the last twenty years being told we were too small and weak for English football, and to stop moaning and man up.
And yes, I get touchy about this stuff, because it's so tedious and I hear it all the bloody time. We "bottled the title" when we dropped just 5 points in the last 18 games, despite losing key players in the run-in. We played
all of last season without being able to start Havertz, Ødegaard and Saka together - our main creative players - and got told we were too negative. Peak negativity on our part when Liverpool came to us and ended up playing keep-ball with a six man midfield yet we got the blame for a dull match... it just goes on and on and on, it's relentless.
I don't come to this thread to do banter. I come because there is usually interesting comment about leagues I know little about. The premier league is everywhere, it doesn't really need to be here - though the City case is obviously something that should be discussed. I'd far rather hear whether Killy have finally scored a penalty than even more about the prem, but here we are, again.
Yesterday I went to a mates to watch the Yorkshire derby - Huddersfield away to Bradford in League 1. I watched with two Huddersfield fans and another Arsenal fan. Town won 3-0, and Bradford lost their heads and got a red. I saw a lanky central defender score an overhead kick. Huddersfield went clear at the top of the league. That's interesting, not narratives about Arsenal
killing football by
managing their finances properly, adapting to the physical nature of today's Premier League, and building a young tam that was ready to challenge at precisely the time when City and Liverpool were in decline
