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Man at the Match, Chary: Arsenal 2 – Referee enhanced Everton 1

Editor’s note: video included below is courtesy Gooner Dee and is intended to augment Chary’s fine illustration of the atmosphere at the Emirates last night. No real or imagined children were harmed in the making of this video, except the Scouser kid at the end giving the vick sign. He’s clearly been harmed by a lifetime of living in Liverpool.

In all my years of going to Arsenal matches a recurring theme is the phalanx of “Anti-homer” referees that I have seen and who would be the worst example of that in living memory? Step forward Lee S. (shit?) Mason.

I’ve never lead with referee incompetence/bias in any of my match reports before, but last night’s display had everyone, bar the blue corner of Ashburton Grove, incensed with the not only the repeated incompetence, but inconsistent incompetence.

From the 5th minute where Jack Wilshere’s first infringement (a reaction after he was clattered for the third time early in the game) was given a yellow to numerous niggling fouls and off the ball sly digs on Robin by Heitinga being left unpunished, the pattern of the refereeing of the game was established.

As this was an evening match I found the level of crowd singing and banter more vociferous than I’d found for an afternoon game, even in the Clock end (where I was located) it was noticeably noisier even though it is generally quieter than the North Bank due to the family enclosure and the away support diluting the effect of the more vocal elements of the Arsenal support, especially if there is little banter between the home and away fans. There is no equivalent of the Red action section for the Clock End also so the hard core support seems less apparent than at the opposite end of the stadium.

The nearby Everton fans were not the noisiest I’d heard and they seemed to fill out their allocation to around 80% and temperature wise the London area had seen the mercury stay well above freezing even during the previous night so good conditions for playing and watching.

The game started with Everton, as expected, fighting very hard – and a touch cynically – in midfield without much craft, the loss of their spear head Cahill made them lack a certain danger as they would approach our goal.

The first major foul up (he had made numerous bad calls on playing the advantage up till then already) by L S Mason was allowing the off side goal; what had happened was the Arsenal defenders protested at the lack of an offside call as the ball was crossed to Saha, who was a good 2 yards offside, but the replay of the goal on the stadium big screens included that part of the build-up where the 2 yard gap between Saha and the line of defenders was clearly evident, the crowd were rightly aggrieved and L S Mason decided to consult his lino, who I subsequently found out used the rationale that because the ball got an intervention from Kozzer it couldn’t be offside.

WRONG – Under Law 11, a player is offside if he “gains an advantage” from being in an offside position. “Gaining an advantage” is explained in the FIFA handbook as including “playing a ball that rebounds to him off an opponent having been in an offside position”.

So, faced with a referee and lino that either didn’t know the correct rule or choose to enforce inconsistently is it any wonder that the Arsenal fans and players were angered by L S Mason?

“1 nil to the referee” sang the crowd, and justifiably so.

Perhaps this may have been one of the many reasons that caused Cesc to have a word with L S Mason; I’m not even going to dignify Whingeing-bad-loser Moyes mudslinging with a rebuke, except to say had Wenger said that about an Everton player there would be no end of “Whinging Wenger slurs Everton player” headlines screaming out from the back pages of the xenophobic UK gutter press.

I’ve got no time for yet another one of the Lord Fergie (“The best thing since sliced bread”, copyright Ken Bates circa August 2000) fan club, consisting of the likes of him, Fat Sam Allardyce, Ginger McLeish, Steve Bruce, and pretty much all the referees in the Premier League, marshalled by the Old toilet 12th man Howard “The Coward” Webb; Moyes’ allegations can be put in the same garbage bin as Phil “Orange Man’s” load of bollocks allegations about Cesc nearly two years ago.

L S Mason finished the first half as he started and continued it by booking Rosicky’s first infringement for what I thought was a perfectly legitimate tackle just 5 yards in front of me, while a few minutes earlier Heitinga who had been chasing a ball going towards the Everton goal diverted his run to shoulder barge Robin off the ball, a penalty if it had been at the other end no doubt.

Both players were running towards the goal I was behind and I had a perfect view of the shoulder barge – L S Mason was letting this go as he was the rotational fouling on Cesc and Tim Howards’ Baywatch style slow motion approach to taking goal kicks. How L S Mason let a cynical trip go on Cesc as he was ran off to launch a counter attack after a failed Everton corner I don’t know.

It was worthy of a yellow but not even a foul was called.

At half time I saw a stat on the big screen showing Everton 6 fouls one yellow, Arsenal 4 fouls, 2 yellows – a factor of 300% difference on fouls per yellow card, merely confirming what was obvious to anyone watching the game, consistency in what is allowable as a tackle was not being applied even before you factor in many fouls against Arsenal that were not called.

On the half time highlights the stadium video replay team must have been told not to show the build- up to the offside goal for fear of inciting the crowd as all they then showed was the strike itself and not a second before it.

Worryingly Song was subbed at the start of the second half and the sight of Diaby playing in his position didn’t inspire me with confidence, but to be fair I only noticed a handful of misplaced passes and thankfully the crowd didn’t get on his back.

Arsenal were still pressing and pushing forward with Everton’s players starting to tire, Saha couldn’t be bothered to run onto and dribble one of the many hoofed clearances due to the tiredness caused by how energetically Everton pressed in the first half. He just took and touch and scuffed a weak shot that didn’t even get to the goal. From that moment on the energy seemed to drain from Everton and their lack of skill in the attacking third caused many a forward move to break down.
Arshavin, Bendtner and Chamakh started to warm up and the first two replaced Rosicky and Jack Wilshere, a wise move as both were on yellows and the Everton tactic of trying to provoke a reaction by leaving their foot in may have led to a red, in fact Robin’s running battle with Heitinga was also a worry as memories of previous Robin red cards borne out of frustration came to the fore.

As is customary Arsenal attacked the north bank goal in the second half so all I saw of the equalizer was Cesc’s dinked, lifting chip and someone volley it in; the “He’s five foot four” song that started up left me in no doubt who had scored.

Cue “Who are you?” chants directed to the Everton support to my right.

The already raucous atmosphere was lifted further by the equaliser, perhaps a touch more so by the fact Arshavin scored it; where are the so called “Supporters” who were chanting at him in the Leeds game to “F**k off and join Chelsea” now?

The confidence returned to Andrey and he carried on driving forward and giving the Everton right back a torrid time.

Soon after Robin hit a dangerous free kick that was going in had the greasy bald-headed Howard not palmed it away for a corner. Robin’s free kick potency is returning game by game.

From the resulting corner an unlikely match winner emerged in Kozzer who headed in unopposed (even I could see it was a free header from the opposite end of the ground) and the volume and energy levels went up to fiendish levels as did my volley of adrenaline induced swearing at the Everton support.

(Warning: salty language, do me a favor love and plug in the headphones if you’re going to watch this at work? – Tim)

After that we laughed at how quickly Howard sprinted to take subsequent goal kicks (he got a yellow card for time wasting before our second goal – zilch chance of that happening again), before he looked like an old aged pensioner, now he was running like Usain Bolt, I can’t imagine why.

At the final whistle Clichy took a running jump and hugged Kozzer as recognition for our match winner, proof positive of the spirit in the team.

This is contrary to what the Arsenal-hating media would have you believe about Cesc’s captaincy being questioned, factions in the dressing room and various other bullshit rumours being peddled by tabloid hacks.

While ManUre and Chelshit both won we are still in the hunt and showing great character to come back against a strong side and a biased (allegedly), incompetent and inconsistent referee.

Man at the match Chary:It’s all about Eddy

As Tim rightly pointed out yesterday that fate had conspired to give us the chance to send Eddy off with our best wishes in a proper manner – on a Champions League night in front of the home fans who not only applauded his name as the subs were read out pre match, but as he warmed up at the same time as Theo prior to their introductions in the second half.

The game started with the heavy, squally rain showers in the London area having cleared by kick off and hence the temperature was cool but not cold. I noticed the gunners mascot, Gunnersaurus, was absent from the evening possibly because the Clubs management has realised the more adult nature of the crowd on a weekday evening.

Another positive development this season is the build-up to the game including a selection of clips of Arsenal glory moments played to a “tick- tock” soundtrack that helped generate an atmosphere of excitement and expectation before the players arrive. “London Calling” and “Right here, right now” seem to be fixtures in the pre match playlist whilst “The Wonder of You” is now the penultimate track played.

The opposition support had filled their allocation by three quarters although I’d suggest this was less down to hundreds of them making the long weekday trip from Donetsk and more due to the sizeable London based Ukrainian population. There seemed to be a touch of the Geordie about them as a hard core of a half a dozen of them spent the entire match shirtless, even when the temperatures dipped considerably in the second half.

Cesc led us out to shouts of “We’ve got Cesc Fabregas”, as a contrast to the Man IOU who cannot say that of the Scouse Shrek. The team selection (a midfield of Jack, Cesc and Song with Rosicky, Chamakh and Nasri) seemed just right to me with the defence picking itself, except perhaps Gibbs being a contender for Clichy’s spot, although I feel the European nights suit Gael a tad more than Kieran.

It could have been down to the pints of Kronenbourg 1664 (other lagers are available) I sunk at the Arsenal Tavern in Blackstock Road earlier, but I felt relaxed watching us control the game with ease from the start and even when Shaktar tried to attack I was sure Flappy (how long till we can’t/shouldn’t call him that? The quicker the better) would cope, a strong double fisted punch from a Shaktar corner proof of his new found confidence. For me when Flappy’s confidence is there he is at the very least a competent keeper and one who can show us on match days just what Wenger sees in him during training.

On the other hand, the Shaktar keeper had a Van der Saar style fumble to let Dmitri Song bundle in the opening goal, his curious camera-framing celebration perhaps imploring me to ensure I had a decent snap of that moment – sorry, I missed it!

Of the midfield Jack and Tomas were impressing, Jack with his lung bursting running as a box to box midfielder and Tomas with his driving runs at the opposition as well as his equally energetic tracking back. Cesc started slowly and his usual inch perfect crosses and passes were not quite there, but after a month long lay-off even world class stars will take time to slide back into their groove.

A clever flick in the penalty box from Tomas I think it was, teed up Nasri for a volley, I could see his eyes fixed on the ball as it fell for him to swing his foot through the arc of the volley. While the volley was executed expertly it was straight at the keeper, however moments later he would score after keeping his composure in the goal keepers area after a collecting a well weighted cross.

Two nil at half time and a satisfactory start; while Shaktar looked tidy on the ball they hadn’t garnered enough possession to be threatening up till then.
During the interval the temperature dipped sharply and the cutting wind made Cesc’s decision to opt for short sleeved shirts (a Herbert Chapman tradition, where the skipper for the day chooses whether it’s long or short sleeved shirts to be worn by the whole team) suggested he had been duped by the milder temperatures at kick off time.

Second half and more calamity in the Shaktar penalty area resulted in a penalty for us which from the crowd reaction in the north bank to the bundling over of Djourou was one of expectation rather than hope (of gaining a penalty) and the referee duly obliged – it was a relief it wasn’t a result of a perceived Chamakh dive, the assembled hacks rows behind the dug outs would no doubt have made a lot of it had it been another penalty won by our new striker.

With Cesc back he resumed his PK-taking duties and duly dispatched our third goal. Since the events of the summer his goal celebrations will be looked at more closely, for example with regard to badge kissing, but his “Happy Birthday mum” message on his vest showed he’s just a young man happy where he is.

Eddy was introduced to a standing ovation and all corners of the stadium sang his name proving what kind of respect you can get from Arsenal fans – The Whore of (Middle) Eastlands take note. Soon after a neat one two resulted in Jack signing off with a well taken goal, and we look forward to seeing him play away to the same opposition in a fortnight.

Our scoring was completed with Chamakh controlling a precision pass to rifle in his sixth of the campaign and allow him to be taken off for a well-earned rest – his fitness crucial as Robin’s fitness issues mean should Chamakh become unavailable we could be in a whole heap of trouble. The crowd expecting the offside flag to go up as Marouane collected the pass and even after the net bulged most of us in the block behind the opposite goal looked at each other expecting the goal to be ruled out.

For the last twenty minutes Shaktar sent out a warning as to what to expect in two week’s time at their place as their half time sub, Costa, showed plenty of invention (quick feet) and trickery (conning free kicks out of the ref) to show they will be a tricky proposition in the return leg.

This concerted pressure from Shaktar resulted in the scenario Eddy had hoped to avoid even before the draw for the Group stages was made for this year’s competition – scoring against us. As he’d promised he didn’t celebrate, he merely kept his head down as he ran towards us behind the goal and then trotted off to the centre spot, only acknowledging the crowd after he got to the half way line and responded to his name being sung out loud. Certainly at the Clock end we all stood as one (as soon as the volley went in) to applaud and shout out Eddy’s name.

At the final whistle Djourou, who was closest to Eddy as it blew, embraced our returning hero as warmly as King Kolo had to Bobby last year; Eboue then started the team embraces as each Arsenal player made sure he knew what he meant to us.

“Edu—–aaardo, Ed——-uardo”

The chants rang out till Eddy disappeared down the tunnel with a final handclapped acknowledgement to the crowd. The overriding feeling being that if only Martin “not that kind of player” Taylor and Andy Townsend (the ITV commentator who sparked off the ludicrous witch hunt after THAT penalty against Celtic) hadn’t intervened Eddy might still be banging in the goals for us and becoming the legend he should have been.

A Hollywood style ending of old because as we know we don’t like clean sheets at Arsenal and if anyone was to score against us last night, it was only right it was Eddy.

Man at the Match, Chary: Holloway’s Tangerines Juiced

Theo Walcott led the demolition of a Blackpool side brimming with confidence carried over from their impressive win away to Wigan (a team we embarrassingly capitulated to last season after being 2-0 up at the DW stadium) last week.

On a humid, overcast afternoon with a blustery wind that stopped the atmosphere from feeling too suffocating the first sign of a change in the stadium since my visit at member’s day a little over a fortnight ago was additional signage above the entry points of each block. So as I entered block 11, a compass point motif, with the upward pointing part of the quadrant symbol highlighted in red was labeled “North Bank.”

My seat was at the corner flag to the right as the players faced the North bank where I observed our team warm up and the first thing I noticed was Song limbering up, with a slight limp in his left leg. This could just have been part of his natural gait as he played the full ninety and must therefore have been deemed match fit.

The pre match routine was unique in that for each of the newly renamed stands a family of three generations of season ticket holders were introduced to the crowd to represent the Clock End, the West Stand, the East Stand and – where I was – the North Bank.

A countdown to the switching on of the power to the clock followed the passing of two banners at both the clock end and north bank up and down the lower tiers after which fireworks were let off as the clock sprung to life at about seven minutes to 3pm.

The only other change was the Elvis song that usually accompanies the teams out onto the pitch was played fifteen minutes before kick off with a different song being played to the teams entrance, Right here, right now by Fatboy Slim. Not my sort of stuff, but I doubt many in the crowd would appreciate my choice, All guns blazing by Judas Priest.

The away support pretty much filled out the allocated blocks and plenty of bouncing and singing was to be had amongst the swathes of tangerine support, tangerine coloured balloons floating above them added to the party atmosphere.

As expected Ian Holloway’s team didn’t adopt the defensive approach that many mid/lower table teams have done at Ashburton Grove and for the first ten minutes or so they showed sufficient forward ambition to explain why they scored so freely last weekend, yet their skill levels in engineering openings were not on the scale of the home team.

I suspect they will score goals home and away as well as continuing the commendable trend for some of the so called lesser lights of the Premier League, such as Wigan and West Brom, to attempt to play an attractive game. Maybe the anti football ground out by the likes of Fat Sam Allardyce teams has finally been found out for the crowd killer it is. This is undoubtedly a welcome trend and a positive thing.

Once our passing game started to take a grip the Blackpool forays up field decreased in frequency and the Diaby-Wilshere portion of the midfield stabilised after a shaky start, both players guilty of losing possession although thankfully on no occasion was this punished.

It became clear after a quiet start that Theo Walcott was having an inspired game, his runs frightened the life out of the Blackpool defence and his crosses into the box were well directed even if Chamakh was not quite on the same wavelength as our number 14 initially. Striking partnerships take a while to form however based on what I’ve seen so far I’m optimistic that the Theo-Chamakh axis will reap many goals.

Once the first goal went in courtesy of precision finishing from Theo a healthy portion of the confidence drained away from the Blackpool midfield and a short while later a surging run from Chamakh led to a penalty being awarded.

As I was at the opposite end of the pitch to where the penalty was awarded few of us in the lower tier of the North bank could see that a penalty had been awarded or that their defender had been sent off. It was not till Arshavin picked up the ball and placed it on the spot that we knew for sure what the outcome was out of penalty, free kick or yellow to Chamakh for diving. A powerfully placed pile driver got Andrey off the mark goal scoring wise for the season and it was only a matter of time till Theo, playing like a man possessed, produced another moment of brilliance – a sharp turn and exemplary close control preceding another accurate, driven finish.
3-0 at half time and the mood around the ground was relief that a potential Hull style banana skin was being avoided.

Special praise to Rosicky and the influence he exerted on the game; while Wilshere and Diaby would show a mixture of skill and mediocrity Tomas was consistently controlling and pushing the midfield forward with the confidence of the seasoned, class player he is. The shame being how little we have seen of him since the 2007-08 season, where his presence in the midfield with Cesc, Flamini and Hleb almost delivered a title to us.
An honourable mention must also be made of Song’s efforts at centre back, while not especially dominating in the air he appeared clinical in the tackle and hard to push off the ball, however we are not playing to his strengths there and against stronger opposition we will need him in midfield.

Theo duly completed his hat trick and by now the Blackpool fans had become less animated although each time we scored, bizarrely, it appeared they were joining in the cheering and celebration. Curious indeed.

The decibel levels rose when our World Cup finalists took to the pitch after a Diaby strike brought up the fifth goal– I can only imagine the panic amongst the tiring Tangerines when they saw Robin and Cesc waiting to come onto the pitch.

“We’ve got Cesc Fabregas, we’ve got Cesc Fabregas” rang out – something a good many Gooners doubted they would hear this season. An extra special cheer for Robin as a losing finalist was heard in recognition of the belief amongst our supporters that he is an Arsenal fan as well as a player – the more of that type of player we have in our team the better.

Of course an appearance by Robin isn’t a bona fide one until he has an injury scare, which he duly provided in the penalty area not more than five yards in front of me. Cesc was his usual self, pulling the strings and creating space for himself in the way he does.

A Robin corner that Chamakh – salmon like – hung in the air for and skilfully craned his neck back to connect to and our sixth goal arrived for a deserving player. Chamakh took time to grow into the match but he will be glad to have started scoring, the only pity was the crowd didn’t have a song to sing for him, the one heard at Barnet was not taken up by the Ashburton faithful on this occasion. Chamakh, already a well integrated team member it looks, went straight over to Robin to thank him for the assist after scoring.

As the game headed to the finish what was surprising to me was the frustration of many in the crowd of the ever present tendency of our forwards to seek another pass instead of trying to shoot.

A strange thing to say after a 6-0 win, but an interchange between Robin and Cesc that resulted in an attack fizzling out (because of one pass too many) was greeted with a pretty scathing response from those around me; while I just groaned a little there were various expletive laden shouts to be heard. I would venture that many are tiring of our reluctance to shoot and the subsequent passing of responsibility of shooting to “someone else.”

Against a newly promoted team playing with ten men this weakness will not be enough to affect the result but against one of the title contenders we could pay for such profligacy via dropped points.

Tougher tests await our team but an away draw at Anfield and a healthy home win are a more than satisfactory start.

Thanks for reading.

Chary