That Arsenal agenda and other bollocks in the Mailbox
Thank you for your mails (particularly on Arsenal). We shall get through this interlull together. Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com
Hating Arsenal? We must be improving…
As an Arsenal fan I must say I am delighted to be disliked again. It shows we’re doing something right! All those barren years of being certain peoples’ ‘second team’ and getting their sympathy never sat right with me.
James, Kent
That Arsenal agenda
In response to ‘Grumpy Dip’s’ mail about the Arsenal Agenda… most Arsenal fans aren’t claiming ‘an agenda’ as such. Just biased officiating. That bias may be totally unconscious. Equally, there may be individual, conscious bias or even more nefarious drivers given the advent of anonymous crypto betting (an Arsenal yellow is still being investigated FYI). However, none of these constitute ‘an agenda’ at the level of the PGMOL. Just the really rather raw end of the stick.
But rather than postulate theories that you won’t like and definitely won’t agree with, why don’t I just pose some questions to you that might make you empathise with even an iota of Arsenal fan’s frustration…
– Arsenal are the 16th most (5th least) fouled team in the Premier League this season. Given the way they play and the players they have does that sound possible let alone plausible?
– When is the last time one of Arsenal’s opposition had a player sent off for serious foul play vs. how many times this season have they been subject to horrendous fouls? A few examples being McArthur’s hack at Saka, Godfrey’s stamp on Tomiyasu’s face, Gordon’s over the ball crunch on Tavares shin or Lascelle’s shoulder smash into Martinelli’s head (Mane’s elbows or Mings’ sliding tackle definitely don’t make the cut).
– When have you even seen a player sent off for 2 yellows given in succession before the first has been issued like what happened with Martinelli? I’ve seen players committ two, three, even four professional fouls in a row whilst trying to stop an attack before and only ever receive one caution. Seeing two awarded back-to-back was new.
– When have you ever seen a ref yellow card a player for multiple offences, making it clear to him and the world that the yellow is for multiple offences by pointing around the pitch and counting 1, 2, 3… but the player hadn’t committed a single foul beforehand? Literally zero. Xhaka had that pleasure at the weekend. Amazingly, Matt Cash committed 4 real, actual fouls himself and received no yellow for it.
– Arsenal receives about 0.11 reds per yellow card and 0.013 reds per foul. Liverpool gets 0.01 reds per yellow and 0.002 per foul. 90% fewer reds per yellow and 80% fewer reds per foul. How is that possible? (especially when you consider that Xhaka has never been sent off for 2 yellows in the EPL!)
– On the subject of Xhaka; in his past 13 EPL performances he has committed just 11 fouls but received 6 yellow cards. Does that seem plausible without some level of bias?
That is all.
Ben (London)
…Managers complain about the fixture list, fans complains about inconsistent officiating and we’ll all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow. And nothing ever happens. Nothing happens at all, wait, where was I?
If you’ve never had a manager who has complained about the fixture list or inconsistent refereeing, then fine – have a pop at Arsenal all you want.
But I suspect you have on both counts – we’re all biased when it comes to our own clubs and Arsenal’s fanbase isn’t really that special in this regard. Maybe your hate for Arsenal is intrinsically linked with a club that appears to be growing in relevance?
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London
Mings not even a foul
In my humble opinion the Mings tackle wasn’t even a foul. Did he go in two footed? No. Was his foot high? No. Did he win the ball cleanly? Yes. This was not the distant relation of a reckless tackle, nor was it careless. It is inevitable, especially at the elite professional level where the game is played at extreme pace, that a player will occasionally be caught as a result of follow through, but that doesn’t mean the tackle was dangerous or that there was intent to injure. I don’t know how the sky pundits think it was a yellow.
As Oli asked, what was the actual infringement? The only alternative would be for Mings not to go for the ball. I’m not just saying that as a Villa fan; I thought the Jimenez sending off was outrageous and also that the Sanchez second yellow against Man United was extremely harsh. Again, foot not high, won the ball cleanly. You can argue he should have known better when already on a yellow, but that’s only because the rules are wrong. I’m not advocating a return to the Ron Harris/Norman Hunter era but there should be a place for a fair tackle in the game. Some refs seem to have stopped blowing up every time someone rolls around pretending they’re hurt and the more this happens the better. Those players do a disservice to players who have been seriously injured by bad tackles.
Garrett AVFC
Can free really be that bad?
Reading through the Worst XI of signings during the Abramovich era, one thing stuck out to me and that was the inclusion of Tal Ben Haim who cost our club nothing but a small signing on fee and his weekly wage, personally I would have included one of Matt Miazga or Michael Hector both of whom cost fees all be it small ones under £5m, but still cost money to bring in.
This brought me to a question that I would love to hear fellow mailboxers answer, who was your club’s worst ever “Free” signing?
The Admin @ At The Bridge Pod
Celebrate good times…come on
Great piece about the celebration police.
It got me thinking about how I used to celebrate every goal I ever scored when playing five a side and how much it pissed the opposition off due to how crap I was.
Weirdly, I never chose to emulate any Arsenal player’s celebration – my top three were the late Yekini’s from the 1994 World Cup in which he just grabbed the goal net and put his face in it, Klinsmann’s dive and my favourite of all – David Pleat’s weird skipping run that year Luton survived the drop.
While I never did it, I always loved Robbie Fowler’s ‘chewing the grass’ celebration as well.
So mailbox – which is your favourite goal celebration?
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London
Red-hot fixture chat
It’s getting towards the business end of the season and a lot of people are doing that thing where they look at the fixture list to try to extrapolate out where a certain team is likely to end up in the table. In the last two Mailboxes, we’ve had Arsenal (supposedly hard) and Everton (also supposedly hard). Maybe I have missed some other entries as well!
Most teams in the league have played 27-29 games, so they have ~25% of their games left to play. In other words, half the teams in the league. It’s unlikely that many (if any) teams have had their fixtures loaded in such a way that it is materially more difficult than another team’s fixtures.
Take Arsenal – they have: Crystal Palace (12th), Brighton (13th), Chelsea (3rd), Man Utd (6th), West Ham (7th), Leeds (16th), Newcastle (14th), and Everton (17th). So the average league position of teams they have to play is 11th.
You can put a narrative around any individual fixtures and selectively choose to ignore others, to suit your agenda or inherent optimism / pessimism. So using the example above, Leeds, Newcastle, and Everton will be “really hard to play against because they are fighting relegation”. But, those three teams are demonstrably amongst the worst in the Premier League, as evidenced by their league position.
So I guess what I’m trying to say (in a very boring way), is playing the fixture game is not likely to be a very accurate way of gauging where teams will end up at the end of the season.
Sam (the snorlax), Oxford
Never mind the bollocks
Kiarian is absolutely correct to say that BT Sport should not have censored Frank Lampard for saying “bollocks.” While Ofcom regulations DO constrain obscenity on television broadcasts, Regina v Seale in 1977 established that the word “bollocks” specifically to refer to testicles may be considered vulgar, but is not in the eyes of the law obscene.
It also made Richard Branson a national celebrity, which is probably why he’s now able to fanny about in space, but, oh well, can’t have everything.
Dara O’Reilly, London