Diaby's fear, Referee's and other theoretical Rants

It's been a while since I last blogged. Not having the internet for 2 months was tough but in that time my beloved Gunners have done so well, until my internet was turned back on!
So I have to admit I'd been apprehensive in a superstitious sense, to start the blog back up again.
But, I've decided I can't keep my mouth shut, so here we are with a fresh 'Ranter' perspective on recent going on’s...or is it going’s on?.....

I didn't want to dwell on some of the recent adventures Arsenal have faced, ie: Ref's, capitulations and Cup scares but as I doubt many of you will read this bollocks anyway, I'll have a proper rant just to get it all off my chest once and for all.

So where do I start?

Let's start with a positive, our position in the league: We're second! Sounds good to me!

We're the only club still left in all 4 major competitions which speaks volumes for our belief, strength in depth and confidence which has slowly grown over time. Confidence was a big factor over the first 6 months of the season but it's clear that the players as a team have come a long way. 

What is evident however, is that there are still a few weak links in the team at times. The biggest one may actually now be overconfidence which leads to complacency.

Complacency is a dangerous, horrible state of mind. We've been punished on many occasions because of this. Which leads me onto Newcastle.

I've heard and read many comments, theories, rants and arguments about what the hell happened the other day. I've had time to simmer and really think about it.

Firstly, it's done, it's gone. A new Premier League record in capitulation - well done Arsenal.

My thoughts are simple. It was a freak game of two halves brought onto the team because they did not concentrate as a team.

They, as many teams would be, were too complacent with a 4-0 lead.

 

But unlike some other teams in that position, Arsenal threw away three points.

With the help of the referee and Diaby’s understandable but thoughtless and unprofessional petulance, Newcastle battled well as if it were the last day of the season and a draw would save them from relegation. A prospect they still may face.

Diaby’s reaction has caused many an argument. I believe that it was a flicker of anger and fear which caused him to react to that thug of a player.
(I shan’t mention the cnut’s name - I, as do 99.999999999999999% of the world’s population, actually hate him and believe he should have been banned from football for life after stubbing out a cigar in a team mate's eye, leaving him blind and unable to continue his football career).

Anyway, the thug challenged and got the ball, granted, but he also followed through viciously which literally bent Diaby’s leg in a way that it probably shouldn’t have. Hence the flashbacks, fear and anger from Diaby after suffering from a couple of horrific injuries previously.

However; If you are a professional  footballer who has suffered with bad injuries before, that does not give you permission to react unprofessionally to an over zealous tackle that may come your way. If you can’t get over that fear and react professionally then I am afraid your career has to be over.
I hate to think that he has or could, possibly react so badly to a late, hard but non malicious tackle from Jack in training. The last thing we need is in-fighting in the camp. Would he react like that to Jack or was it just because it was the thug and he was already wary of the possibility of a crunching challenge from him?

Basically, Diaby has to learn to accept that these challenges are always a possibility and if he can’t learn to deal with them and accept the consequences naturally then he will have to retire from football and take up some sort of non contact sport like netball or volleyball.  If Abou managed to deal with his fears and anger, we may actually see the full potential that Wenger clearly has seen before but we’ve yet to witness.

The fact remains; Diaby let the team, the manager and the fans down and his sending off contributed to our second half display in many ways.

So that was just one contributor.

The next one is more straight forward and we’ve seen it before.
Once down to 10 men, with anger brewing over Diaby’s sending off and the injustice of the ref’s poor decisions, Arsenal lost their concentration. When you can’t concentrate, you concede penalties, you get caught offside more often, you don’t track back and mark your man, you don’t clear the ball properly, the list goes on. Every single thing that could have gone wrong, went wrong. So the whole team needs to take that on their shoulder’s and I’m sure they have.

Finally; The referee. Phil Dowd.
Newcastle's flavour of the month. He didn’t half do them a few favours. The first penalty was, though soft, a letter of the law penalty. Fair enough.

Then, after applying the letter of the law to Diaby as he ‘raised his hands’ against two Newcky players, he decided that the letter of the law no longer applied against Newcastle.
Here’s one - Would Dowd have only yellow carded Diaby had he just pushed the thug and not Nolan. I think not. Phil Dowd, Newcastle’s flavour of the month.

Why was the thug not yellow carded for a through the back challenge on Shavva?
Phil Dowd, Newcastle’s flavour of the month.
Why was Nolan allowed to wrestle our keeper to the ground by the neck without being sent off? Phil Dowd, Newcastle’s flavour of the month.
Some idiots (pundits and football journo’s - no names mentioned) said it’s because Chesney would not give him the ball, but it wasn’t Newcastle’s ball. The ball is the property of the ref (Phil Dowd, Newcastle’s flavour of the month.) during the game and Arsenal were going to kick off from the centre circle so he had every right to keep hold of it.
According to the ref though, Nolan only deserved a yellow because it was Chesney’s fault.
Phil Dowd, Newcastle’s flavour of the month.  

The Arsenal Stadium Mystery: How much did the ref get paid at Everton and Newcastle?

Last but not least is the biggest mystery since the ‘Arsenal Stadium Mystery’ back in 1939.
A second penalty for......jumping? …..farting the wrong kind of smell?...  who knows?
Phil Dowd, Newcastle’s flavour of the month.

Here is a question that many a football fan has posed: Why can’t the ref’s grow some bollocks and come out after each game for a post match report explaining the key decisions they’ve made?

At times when they have realised a mistake they’d have the opportunity to apologise.
I guarantee they would earn so much more respect from all in the business and it would make their lives easier.

I thought ref’s that make poor decisions were assessed and disciplined accordingly ie: Everton’s clear offside goal and the linesman’s terrible misunderstanding of the rule regarding 2nd phase play.
Surely this linesman would have been marked down for that and should be relegated to a Championship game for at least one match to encourage improvement in decision making? Please correct me if I’m wrong, and if I am, explain why I am wrong.

Apart from these negatives, Arsenal actually ended up gaining a point on the leaders Manure after they lost their first game of the season in the league to bottom placed Wolves! The 'Invincibles' record is safe for another year. I never feared them matching an unbeaten Premier League season, I've said all along that they will lose. But If they had matched our record with the boring droll they're churning out we'd still have the privilege of knowing that we did it in style in 2004! 

Arsenal have done extremely well in recent months and are still in with a shout for at least one trophy with the Carling Cup final soon approaching. But we’re not there yet. We still have flaws to iron out.
How do we know what our flaws are? By showing them, like we did against Newcastle.
Now we’ve done that it’s time to correct them.
I think, no, I know, that Wenger will help the team get over the Newcastle debacle mentally and the signs so far from the players on Twitter and the likes, are good. They seem to have a uniform mentality that it was an unusual situation and they can move on from it.

As we all know and expected, Wenger did not buy anyone, particularly a central defender, in the transfer window. Am I disappointed? According to some prize twonk on Sky Sports News last week, every Arsenal fan is disappointed that Wenger failed to buy in January. WRONG -  I’m not disappointed. Nor should any Arsenal fan be. It’s all about how you look at it.
Wenger has an amazing record when it comes unearthing gems. Kosh is turning out to be one of those gems. Squillacci, not so much - yet! He was never expected to set the world alight but considering this is their first season in a league that is faster, harder, more pressurising, I think they’re both doing well. Congrats to Kosh in being called up to the French squad by the way.

They don’t work so well together (the fabulous @ladyarse brilliantly quoting Squillacci as Kosh’s Kryptonite!) but Squillacci especially, will improve with time.
Kosh works well with JD and it seems the knee problem is short term so that partnership should continue for the Barca game. Barring a miracle return by the amazing Vermaelen that is.

So I think it is a testament to the whole squad that Wenger trusts them, believes in them and shows them that they don’t need replacing by splashing out stooopid dosh on a player to appease the fans. Who was out there that was available? No-one I can think of. The ones that were, are just over-priced and totally against Wengers’ buying policy so I don’t get why so many fans expect it each year! This policy can only build the players’ confidence further and I praise Wenger for that. So should you.

Interdull

Just a brief one on today’s pointless international between Denmark and England - meh!......

Bendtner played for Denmark, didn’t score.
Theo and Jack both featured for England, Jack was smooth and impressive.
Theo was speedy, set up Darren Bent’s goal and got a bloody eye for his troubles. (The Danish defender who caught him with his fingers whilst Theo made a mug of him to set up the goal, is a drag queen called Helga in Copenhagen in his spare time and forgot to take his false nails off before the game - just thought I’d mention that).  
Most importantly, none of them were injured, including Helga.
 
We have Wolves on Saturday which starts a run of three Premiership home games in a row sandwiched in between a couple of Champions League tussles with Barca as mentioned.
More opinions on those games nearer the time if you can be arsed to follow and read the next blog post after this essay!!

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some football related eye candy, I know this is your favourite part!

Our very own Keeley Hazell: Not sure if she's actually a Gooner but if she's not, she should be!