Arsenal will always be nearly men with this manager and these strikers…

The post-Arsenal-defeat Mailbox inevitably features Stewie and others bemoaning the Gunners’ lack of ruthlessness and title-winning mentality. Also: ta-ra, Roy; Kalvin Phillips; Spurs; and a Liverpool conspiracy theory…

Get your views in to [email protected]…

Here’s Stewie

Plus ca change. After watching Citeh (who have a plethora of key injuries), come back from a goal down to comprehensively beat Everton, Arsenal demonstrate perfectly the reason why I stated: if Citeh don’t win the PL for some strange reason, then it’s Liverpool’s to lose.

Every season it’s a new ridiculous method of dropping points and showing an inability to learn. What’s the latest excuse? West Ham even lost their best player (Pacqueta) early doors – but still, they schooled Arsenal. That’s why I repeat: Arsenal FC simply don’t have the mentality to finish the job when the pressure is on. It’s that famous “Wenger DNA” that’s permeated the club since 2005. It’s the kind of DNA that makes so many Arsenal fans worship an obvious bum like Jesus, who no big club would tolerate. See Pep.

A list of more proficient strikers, all on lower wages and playing in teams that create far less big chances – but still outperforming the Brazilian Rebrov: Hee-Chan, Édouard of Palace, Watkins, Mbeumo at Brentford, Callum Wilson, Chris Wood and Nicolas Jackson (😂). And Bowen. In tight matches against packed defences, you need to be clinical – but as usual, we watch the Brazilian Rebrov miss his 2 customary sitters and occupy any and every space apart from the one you need your striker to be in. It should be alarming for Arsenal fans that Jesus was ditched by Pep, that he misses a catalogue of sitters and isn’t at the level of the main number 9s of Bournemouth, West Ham, Spurs, Wolves or Nottingham Forest. Chris Wood would have buried both the sitters Jesus missed.

Zinchenko…Zinchenko…Zinchenko.

I mentioned this big issue to 365 several months ago, and again pre Anfield. But apparently, people were unaware that this regular starter has zero defensive intelligence. To make matters worse, Zinchenko’s defensive ineptitude is perfectly mirrored up front, through his fellow Pep Citeh reject/team-mate, the Brazilian Rebrov. One day, it’ll click as to why Pep was happy to offload these two wastrels. When did Pep last foolishly offload important players to his “rivals”?

£200m spent in the summer and there was absolutely no attacking option to come off the bench and change the game. The creative midfield options are Odegaard aaaand….that’s it! Double-press him and nobody else can create. Nketiah and Reece Nelson are, respectfully, Sheffield United level players. But both were the main bench options. Dear Christ, even Wolves, Brighton and Bournemouth have superior attacking options off the bench! With the huge money spent, the question has to be asked as to how this has been allowed to happen? When I wrote to 365 last summer and lambasted Jesus, we heard the usual clownery from Arsenal’s deluded clique. This season, Jesus has more yellow cards than league goals! LOL.

It’s finally taken yet Another choke-job to see what’s been obvious to the world: Arteta was negligent in wasting the Arsenal budget on players who weren’t priorities (outside of Rice). Wasting time and effort on Havertz and Raya – the gains are marginal, at best. Not exactly  ike swapping out Jesus for Haaland now is it! 😂🙄

I repeat: £200m spent, plenty of time, his own squad and yet: less points compared to same point last season, less wins, less big chances created, less goals. Serious questions have to be asked as to how such a promising team that had a title in its grasp, has regressed so alarmingly with such huge investment.

Each passing year we see Arsenal fans show off about “top on Xmas day” and I simply laugh: how long did that Fake accolade last then? 🤔. Because ultimately, we never hear a squeak come from them come April/May. They never learn.

Brazilian Rebrov with yet another occasion when his team desperately need firepower and…nada. West Ham lose their best creative player and still look far more dangerous than Arsenal. How is that happening? Given that Arsenal fans spent years telling the world you can’t compete with teams who spend more than you, how has Moyes left the Emirates looking like Arrigo Sacchi?

Stewie Griffin (Oh Dear! This refusal to learn isn’t going to change and Arteta will never win a PL, good as he is. Summer window a disaster – so personally, I’d swap Arteta out for Xabi Alonso if he’s interested. Mind you I once suggested swapping Wenger for Klopp in 2012 and the 365 Gooners lost their collective s**t!)

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Nearly men​

Another 75% possession game another set of dropped points..I said it after the Everton game, after the Aston Villa game and again now, though I expect you could say of after every game… Arsenal are limited, predictable and slow and have no chance of winning the if this does not change ASAP…but since it didn’t change since last year or indeed for several years i’m afraid we’re doomed for “nearly” yet again…

Liam

Read more: Moyes and West Ham put the seal on a brilliant if puzzling 2023 with victory at profligate Arsenal

Kick the controversy addiction

Wouldn’t we all just be better off if there was a ban of slow motion replays? Or perhaps restrict what can be broadcast somehow. Do we really need to see every tackle at 240 frames a second and from 3 angles? For the good of our collective mental health let’s at least try to kick our addiction to controversy by taking away it’s most powerful drug.

Dave, Manchester

Don’t blame officials

I don’t want to hear any complaints from Arsenal fans about how VAR cost them again, especially after the clear Odegaard handball last week. At this point, VAR and the rules in general are so unclear that it breeds inconsistency. We should all expect to receive our share of good and bad VAR fortune. Even Liverpool has had some good fortune surely?

What we should look at is Arsenal’s failure to score despite dominating the match after that 13th minute goal. Jesus is a good player, but it’s clear his value to the team is not in scoring goals. Arsenal have a ton of chance-creators, but no finishers. Compared to the other title-challengers, Liverpool can throw on 2 of Jota, Nunez, Diaz or Gakpo while Man City can throw $100 million if they need to. Arsenal only have Smith-Rowe, Trossard, Viera and Nketiah. 3 are chance-creators and Nketiah is unreliable.

This isn’t to say Arsenal are no good the way they are (2nd last year and currently), but they lack a goalscorer to come off the bench and poach that winning goal. They could afford to spend almost $100 million on unnecessary luxuries like Havertz and Raya, surely $10-$15 million for an experienced backup is possible? (Example: Look at what Joselu has contributed for Real Madrid.) Those goals could be the difference between winning the title or falling short. Arteta needs to sort this out in January.

Jason (I hear Jamie Vardy’s still firing fit…)

Cameras for goalposts

So that’s the second time Arsenal have been on the wrong end of a VAR byline decision this season. I’d love to suggest a detailed way to remediate such circumstances in future, based on cameras in the goalposts facing towards the corner flag for instance.

But then I remember MAW’s (LA Gooner) smug mail from earlier telling us that Gary O’Neil should be United manager as that’s our level, and the Arsenal fans mocking us for getting beaten 2-0 away to West Ham. So instead I just laugh and think, get the popcorn out as this should be good.

Garey Vance, MUFC

…City fan here. Well, not exactly North London’s finest hour, eh? The Friday morning mailbox is going to be fun to read though. Now, I watched more of the Arsenal game than the Brighton one, so my predictions, whilst not exactly earth-shattering, are as follows:

* Stewie Griffin missive inbound.

* The-ball-over-the-line-or-not incident is going to bring out the Arsenal VAR/Ref conspiracy tin-foil hats in droves, isn’t it?

* The fact that The Hammers played out of their socks will be virtually ignored.

* The term ‘bottling’ in relation to The Gunners will be referred to at least once.

* Somebody will highlight the Brighton game as to why De Zerbi should be the next United manager (again).

* Somebody will point out that Son tends to go missing far too often and that Richarlison is NEVER going to be a twenty goal a season player.

Next up for City meanwhile? Blades at home. I should point out that I am, in fact, an Old Fart and, having watched City since 1972 would never presume to think that ANY game is three points in the bag (I’m not joking). Not least because I have a Sheffield United female friend who would kick my arse if I did. Still, it’s nice to think we could go second in the table whilst looking forward to De Bruyne, Haaland and Doku all returning soon. Lovely.

Mark, MCFC (Thank you for the kind mails recently. Pleased to report that family and friends have rallied and, so far, both the mortgage company and the Utilities have been quite reasonable. Can’t get away from the fact that three kids will always associate Christmas with something the rest of us don’t, but they and their Mam are surrounded by support and love. Amazing)

Thanks and goodbye, Roy. Again.

Crystal Palace’s current miserable run of form is showing the worst of Roy Hodgson.

A man who is regularly the subject of tedious comparisons to his younger contemporaries (“…and Roy had already been managing for 5 years when he was born…”) is suddenly coming across like a tetchy old man who is tired of the job and the state of modern football plus whose tactics no longer offer a guarantee of safety.

His demeanour has changed. Once characterised as the definitive footballing gentlemen, he has, in recent weeks, been aggressive and rude in post-match interviews, giving surly responses to questions he doesn’t like, calling out our young players and even having a pop at our fanbase who are, apparently, entitled.

Then there’s his in-game management, a frequent source of frustration to many of our fans. This particular aspect of his coaching has been massively exposed during this poor run of form.

In our last eight games, we have conceded a goal after the 80th minute in six of them, costing us eight points. All six of those goals were scored by opposition players who had come on as subs, highlighting how effectively opposition managers are changing their game against us when we’re tired.

And why are we tired? Because Roy is reluctant to make changes himself, unless his hand is forced. In the six games mentioned above, the opposition made a combined 25 substitutions to our 20, with their subs taking place in the 67th minute on average, whereas our average was the 72nd minute. Only twice did we make a substitution before our opponents and both of those were due to injury.

Roy doesn’t react quickly enough to momentum shifts in games, despite our fanbase regularly being able to see exactly what is coming. We play a brand of defensive, low possession football that is clearly tiring for the players and leads to late, sloppy errors such as Eberechi Eze giving away the decisive penalty against Chelsea with a tired tackle.

There is some mitigation. We’ve had horrible luck with injuries to key players and our squad is shallow due to a lack of investment from the owners, who share much of the culpability for the current malaise. However Roy’s reluctance to trust our young players, when the entire transfer strategy seems to revolve around signing them, makes you question why he was brought back.

So, what now? The situation is far from terminal. We have half the season and a quiet January transfer window, with barely any matches, to turn this round. Unfortunately, I have lost faith that Roy has the energy, desire or imagination to turn this slide round anymore and, even if he does, he isn’t the long term solution.

Graham Potter and Steve Cooper are on the market and either would, in my view, be an excellent option to oversee a squad rebuild that will surely have to be funded by the sale of key players, such as Marc Guehi, this summer. They both, Cooper especially, also have a strong track record of managing young players effectively.

The current situation is doing nobody any favours, Roy Hodgson included, and I think the time is right to thank him again for his contributions before moving in a new direction.

Ed A

…That was inevitably depressing and depressingly inevitable for lots of Crystal Palace fans.

It’s hard to criticise Roy Hodgson without leaving yourself open to accusations of ageism, but let’s give it a go anyway. More than any other manager, there is a huge gulf between how modern his side sometimes look when they win, and how behind the times they look when they don’t. Hodgson is one of few people.still working in football who can remember a time when substitutions were only supposed to be for injuries, and replacing a player without one was considered poor form, and nostalgia for those times is the only logical explanation for his approach to games this season.

Palace have played half of their league games this season now, making on average 2.79 changes per match. The first tactical or planned change happens on average in the 74th minute, although if Palace are drawing Hodgson waits until the 80th minute to substitute someone. Is it any wonder that they have failed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat when players are given only fifteen minutes at most to do what their teammates haven’t managed in the majority of the match?

The Newcastle United game was the most galling, but it was clear the Chelsea game last night was going against Palace. Being 4-0 down against United after 56 minutes and waiting nearly a quarter of an hour to change any personnel was a missed opportunity to a) give some serious minutes (and a chance to prove themselves) to players who haven’t had many and b) make an example of underperforming starters. Meanwhile, Chelsea had already made four changes before Palace went to their bench, and looked sharper for it. The foul committed by Eberechi Eze, not long back from injury, was a result of tiredness as much as anything else.

I understand Hodgson’s strategy of trying to keep as many of his best players on the field together for as long as possible, but it isn’t working, it hasn’t been for some time, and it isn’t quite how football works anymore. We aren’t quite to the stage of either rugby league, where the four interchange players are considered as important as the starting thirteen (and where the loss of a player to injury is seen as a genuine impediment), and we aren’t at the stage of the starters and finishers approach some rugby union teams use, but it is becoming clear that football is about more than just the eleven players who start the game. Unfortunately for Crystal Palace, the last person to realise this is Roy Hodgson.

Recent comments before the Chelsea game came across as Hodgson getting his excuses in first, even though this is a Chelsea team that is entirely out of sorts. Their lineup on Wednesday night contained plenty of former members of the loan army: players with heaps of potential but still finding their feet as Premier League starters. Regardless of their own form, midtable sides shouldn’t fear them particularly, and yet, Hodgson was content to wallow in his own club’s limitations, which ultimately cost his side.

Regardless of the team involved, it’s the manager’s job to select the best starting team and the most appropriate tactics in order to win the game, and then to make changes to players and tactics during the match as required; most of the time, it doesn’t seem like he is actually bothered about doing all four of these. It’s at this point we realise that instead of being stuck in the past, Hodgson is in fact the most up to date Premier League manager of them all. He’s clearly quiet quitting, a term that only entered the lexicon in 2022.

Ed Quoththeraven

Phillips to Newcastle

For months, there have been rumors (or reminders) that Newcastle United was interested in signing Kalvin Phillips on loan in January. We could use the help, it’s true, though I’m not convinced Phillips is the player that best meets our needs in the long term. I think if he replaces anybody, it’s got to be Miley and Longstaff long-term. , though perhaps Howe envisions some synergy between Phillips, Bruno Guimaraes and (eventually) Sandro Tonali. Huh. Now that I’ve typed that out, it does sound kind of nice. It would require offloading Sean Longstaff and/or Joelinton to get him permanently, though. And those aren’t the first players I’d upgrade. It breaks my heart to say it, but that would be Almiron’s. There have been times when Jacob Murphy has been better, and that’s not a great sign for a team that wants to succeed in Europe.

As well, those characters would be a big loss in the dressing room, and given how much Pep has chosen to play him, I wonder whether character is Phllips’ strong suit. Newcastle will reap benefits from Lewis Miley’s match time this season, but I could wish he didn’t have to have so much of it at his age. And heck, Man City might make it easy on us, because we’re no threat in the league, and the more points Newcastle take off City’s opponents the better, as far as Pep and his bosses are concerned. If they agree to a buy option rather than an obligation to buy, that could be an indicator. After all, the villainous-petro-owner set has every reason to stick together.

Chris C, Toon Army DC

What’s with all the injuries?

What is it with injuries this season? Maybe it’s because Spurs have been so horrifically decimated that I’m noticing it more – and we always get hyper-focused on our own teams troubles – but even our opponents tonight, Brighton, have been ravaged. Newcastle and Man Yoo just to name a couple others.

It’s never usually one thing. The bird obsessed clubs, The Seaguls and The Mags, have Europe to contend with for example, which is not something they’re used to. But the major factor has to be the additional time all teams now play, right? I’m sure there’s plenty more teams who are suffering.

So, to Tottenham. We are currently missing: our 2 starting centre backs, two-thirds of our starting midfield (arguably 3, as Bentancur is elite) and a whole host of players who – although not starters – would make very handy bench options and push the starting 12. Perisic, Solomon, Sess.

Shortly we will also be without our captain, Son, and our other starting midfielder in Sarr. That’s 6 starters, the core of our team, the skipper, vice-captain and vice-vice-captain. This ain’t good.

Our saving grace is that January only serves up 2x PL games and, admittedly, we do have players returning soon. VDV will soon show he is in fact our most important CB. I love me a bit of chaotic Cristian Romero, but I can’t get on board with 28 red cards a season and the general hunger to damage opposing players, just for the lol of it.

So, can anyone else lay claim to having their entire core ripped out to this degree? Also, with players who make such an impact? I don’t wanna hear the ‘Casemiro’s’ of this world when he was in Chief Wiggum condition before his injury. Genuinely decent bonafide starters.

The reason I’m asking is because maybe the PL can introduce a most ‘hard done by’ trophy, thus enabling us to finally win something that’s more than a throw-in or a corner.

If/when we have more players available and we do something in the transfer market, it’s not a horrible prospect is it? We could potently be 3rd tonight, just 3 points behind the scousers (currently top), having played the same amount of games. Or, 4 points off Arsenal if we both win.

Considering pre-season expectations, the 89 injuries and unbeatable record of more suspensions than goals, we should be over the moon. Even our ridiculous record of scoring 1st in every single game since the dawn of time, before going on to win none of them during the 5 game streak, just makes the story all that more fun and Spursy.

It has a new definition, Spursy. It’s still mental, ridiculous and ludicrous, but it’s actually a tag we can now enjoy and revel in. We will still have the classic moments, which everyone seems to absolutely love and it’s ’let’s all laugh at Spurs’, but people have been calling us Spursy this season too. If this is Spursy, I’ll f *cking take it.

Tonight we could be 3/4 points off top with no Romero, VDV or Madders……and maybe even Dier starting?! I love being Spursy.

Cue a 4-nil whooping, more red cards and injuries and a whole host of responses laughing at me. I don’t care. This season is F U N.

Glen, Stratford Spur

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The Tierney conspiracy

Who likes a conspiracy?

*Groan – a Liverpool fan with a conspiracy, how original *

This is partly fun, but also kind of interesting. This season we’ve seen a raft of very poor decisions go against Liverpool via Mr Tierney. With even Howard Webb repeatedly saying Tierney got a decision wrong and the cartel (pgmol) themselves actually correcting one (Macalister red) is it an accident? At first glance you might think so but there’s some interesting data on the topic.

1. – Tierney really hates mohammed Salah – ive talked before how Salah is statistically awarded the least free kicks of any striker or wide forward in Europe despite spending the second most time in the opponents half and box but what is more surprising is how Tierney treats Salah.

On average Tierney awards Salah 0.1 freekicks per game since 2017 and … Zero penalties.

So what? Well other refs award Salah 0.4 free kicks per game. So Tierney is already well below his contemporaries.

SO? How does Tierney treat other similar players?

Grealish is given 4 free kicks a game on average

Rashford is given 2.5 free kicks per game.

Salah gets 0.1 and has never been awarded a penalty

2. The Balance of Big Decisions

Tierney has officiated 23 Liverpool games since klopp arrived in his very first he ruled out a winning goal for Liverpool Vs west brom for accidental handball (which at the time was not illegal) his linesman that day was a chap built like a body builder called Constantine hadzidakis – you’ll get why I’m highlighting this later.

In that time he has given Liverpool an average of 0.08 penalties per game or 1 every 23 games.

In that same time he has given man united 0.28 penalties per game or 1 every 18 games, Chelsea 0.25 or every 15 games and man city 0.16 or 1 every 20 games.

General big decisions (yellow and red cards in your favour) follows the same pattern

United 5.0 or one every 18 games

City 3.50 or one every 20 games

Chelsea 3.50 or one every 16 games

Liverpool 1.25 or one every 23 games

This seems to have started back in 2017 in Liverpool Vs spurs in which Ben Davies repeatedly pulled Salah shirt and klopp eventually lost his rag. The linesman that day? Constantine Hadzidakis.

In the game Vs spurs a couple of years ago in which harry kane wasn’t sent off for making the exact same challenge that Andy Robertson WAS sent off for the referee was Tierney…the linesman….hadzidakis.

Now some eagle eyed peeps might recognise the name hadzidakis as the same linesman who elbowed Andy Robertson – something which he received a one match suspension for.

3. VAR – as the VAR Tierney gets even worse. He has been VAR for Liverpool games about 25% of the time since VAR was introduced and in all that time he has never overturned a refereeing decision in favour of Liverpool. He has also never overturned a VAR decision against a Manchester club.

Now…I wonder where Tierney is from? Oh yes … Greater Manchester.

While I think conspiracy is pushing it too far I do think there is conscious or subconscious bias in his decision making which the FA should look into and perhaps advise him to control his bias better. At the very least he should be given a break from Liverpool games.

Lee

VAR resolution

As I hear the ever more entitled whinging of fans about VAR, the challenge system becomes more evidently the way to go.

As a former referee, I know that you can only see what you can see…forests of bodies, high-speed deflections, etc, etc. These guys aren’t supermen with X-ray vision and 360-degree perspectives (even though Google Goggle equivalents would help).

As was noted in a recent mailbox, the onus should be put on the players and managers. If you disagree with the ref’s call, challenge it. If you’re right, good on you. If not, you lose a challenge (probably 3 not 2). If you run out of challenges, it’s on you…not the ref.

As a downside, 75% of the emails in this mailbox disappear, but the issue resides with the “wronged” team and they get the right to correct it.

As for dickhead managers – just send them off. No yellow cards…chuck them out off the pitch when they misbehave.

Note: the challenge system worked for the biggest dicks in world sport, the Australian cricket team – the Premier League should be easy.

Matthew (ITFC)

…The ongoing debate about VAR masked an interesting question from Tuesday’s game – what should the correct decision have been for the Elliot “goal”? In my 50 years watching football, I haven’t previously seen a similar situation.

As I see it, the referee had three options:

1) Disallow the goal and award a free kick to Burnley for offside.

2) Allow then goal on the basis that Salah wasn’t interfering with play.

3) Disallow the goal and award a penalty to Liverpool for the push on Salah

Salah was offside and in the keeper’s line of vision, so giving an offside decision was correct (in my view) but Salah was only there because he’d been pushed into that position. Although it would be a “soft” penalty, By the laws of football, Burnley gained an advantage through foul play, so a penalty should have been given.

That doesn’t seem too unreasonable.

But, in case 3) Burnley would have also denied Liverpool a goal through foul play, and therefore the player should have also been sent off. Again, very, very soft sending off, but that’s the law.

Note – the double jeopardy rule does not apply for denial of a goal. And no one can argue that Liverpool weren’t denied a goal.

I’m intrigued that PGMOL hasn’t commented on this.

Rob (VAR should go)

City’s pen

With all due respect to TX Bill (sincerely meant), that was a cast iron penalty. A player can’t go to block a penalty area shot with an arm above the head. It’s not enough to say “where is he supposed to put his arm”, if the arm is being waved around in the air then a penalty is going to be given if the ball strikes the arm and then the hand if the arm and hand are level with, and subsequently, above the head and preventing a goal bound shot.

That’s not a natural position for the arm to be in, is it?

Sorry mate.

Levenshulme Blue, Manchester 19