Arteta ‘hurting’ Arsenal by repeating Alexander-Arnold mistake with ‘refusal to learn’

‘Arsenal have learned the dark arts but not mastered them yet; I don’t think they will win the title until they do,’ says one Liverpool fan in the Mailbox.

Send your thoughts to [email protected].

Haa-land before time

Right, here’s a question – what are goals worth? And more-over, where will Erling “scorer of his 1346th professional goal in his final professional game” Haaland, sit in the pantheon of the God’s come his retirement?

To be clear, this mail is not intended to suggest Haaland is not worthy, or is a flat-track bully, or that he is anyway not deserving of being in the conversation of all time greats already when you consider his record and haul – and I definitely do not subscribe to the “well he’ll never win a World Cup…” crowd.

What I am saying, is he is likely on current trajectory going to break every single goal scoring record there ever was. He’s already on 255 professional goals having just turned 24, he’s won domestic trophies and a Champions League, and while he isn’t often a “scorer of great goals” he is hardly confined to mere tap-ins and clearly has scored some great goals. His 255 goals at 24 are nearly that of Cristiano and Messi at that age COMBINED (yes, I know both often from the wing, but they would both go on to score at a goal a game often from the wing, so there is a real chance that Haaland could yet even improve his current ratio and further to that) – MBappe is a little closer to that tally at 24 but still falls short of Haaland and has often been deployed as a centre forward.

Yet, even if he does as we fear he may, go on to win another 10 titles, 3 Champions Leagues and score 183 hat tricks… will he be the greatest? Will he be even close to the greatest? If not, what would he need to add to his game without losing the goals or in lieu of the goals?

My gut feel is that he won’t even be in my top-3 Premier League players come his retirement let any World’s greatest, and I simply don’t know if that’s hipsterism on my part over the artistry and character of players, or if it is a fair crack of the whip on a player who is a bit of a blunt instrument. Don’t get me wrong, he’s the Mjolnir of blunt instruments, and if your pony’s one-trick is to win every single race it enters, you have a pretty good one-trick pony. I just find myself… wanting more?

Lastly, to be clear, there is no personal dislike to him. He’s actually a pretty funny chap and I find him adorably geeky in a way that footballer’s often don’t allow themselves to be. I just wish he had, something… anything…

Answers on a postcard please… I am genuinely curious where some of you lot will land on this.

The Honourable Humble Harold Eugene Hooler

PS – I am well aware half of this reads as couple’s counselling between Erling and I

READ NEXT: The ridiculous stats of Erling Haaland: More Premier League goals than Eric Cantona and Bradford

Irrelevant no more

I know, another mail about the Arsenal-City game from an Arsenal fan. Truth be told, if I sent a mail on Sunday evening it would probably have been filled with asterisks, but having read the last few days’ worth of letters, there is one thing I feel compelled to write in to say.

Every club – EVERY CLUB – has decisions that go in their favour, and decisions that do not. There is not a single club that is more favoured by referees, PGMOL, etc. Even in the game itself, our first goal came as result of Michael Oliver not allowing Kyle Walker to resume his original position before the free kick was taken. Some go for your team, some go against.

However, if all football fans were to come to this realisation, and accept it, then the whole nature of being a fan of the game falls apart. Football is fun, enduring and addictive precisely because of the discussions, the fallouts, the arguments, the radio phone-ins, the mailboxes, etc. If we all took refereeing decisions at face value and said “well, I guess it’s all swings and roundabouts”, then we’d never have anything to really discuss about the games. Because let’s face it, no one really wants to write in to talk about the tactical battles between the coaches, right?

Therefore, I absolutely love that there are staunch fellow Gooners writing in dissertations about how there’s a conspiracy against us; I also love fans of other clubs revelling in us “only” getting a point away to the best team in the world with 10 men. It does absolutely mean that we are back in the big time. Make no mistake about it, there has been a rotten few years where we were simply irrelevant. Not necessarily crap, just irrelevant. Which is the worst. I remember when SAF’s tone towards us changed from aggression and anger to patronising and sympathetic, and that’s when I knew we were no longer one of the big boys. That’s not happening anymore; we’ve got the second best Silva City have had bemoaning our dark arts!

Regarding Michael Oliver’s performance though, I do agree that he was poor throughout, and am baffled that he’s considered our country’s best referee. But the thing that really, really annoys me about him is how miserable he looks every time he refs a game. Has anyone ever seen him crack a smile FFS?? Enjoy your job man! Truly the Mark Lawrenson of the refereeing world.

Ronson, AFC

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Arsenal boiling urine

Dear Ed,

I agree with much of what Rich argues about the goalpost moving for Arsenal following their draw at City at the weekend and also love his delving into stats to argue the point of his refereeing decision.

I thought they were superb and as a Liverpool fan who saw his team smashed for five when down to 10 men there a few years ago the defensive set-up that Arteta produced and the way that players enacted that tactic in the second half was brilliant. They are an incredible team with wonderful flair players capable of superb things but also rock-hard and professional just as Rich says. Their away game schedule and the results they have gained have set them up superbly for the rest of the season. That they ‘only’ drew at the home of the perennial champions despite being down to 10 men for the entire second half is an outstanding result.

The only criticism I would say there should be is that Man City are like the monster in a horror movie or the killer in a thriller – if you have a chance to put them down you need to put two in their head because you just know they will return for one final jump scare and Arsenal had a strong chance to do just that and didn’t take it.

Where I stop agreeing with Rich is when he starts to question the refereeing of Arsenal.

All fans complain about decisions and all fans have a chip on their shoulder about rival teams getting the benefit – this is particularly the case when challenging City. I just don’t think Arsenal have been on the end of a stream of appalling decisions – marginal ones, yes, technical ones that you can disagree with both the nature and consistent application, absolutely, but I just don’t see that there are genuine complaints over and above any other fans. My team Liverpool had 5 red cards last year (several of which were later rescinded – only Burnley had more), should’ve had two penalties in back-to-back games against our main rivals in the title (including Rich’s own Arsenal) that finished in draws, and had the Luis Diaz farce at Tottenham – yet are repeatedly told we are Li-VAR-pool.

As for receiving cards at a ridiculous rate – Arsenal have also finished in the top three the past two years for Fair Play suggesting they aren’t receiving that many cards compared to the rest of the league – this is often largely because they have more possession and control of the game and aren’t therefore having to make desperate challenges – better teams typically receive fewer cards for this reason and for two years Arsenal have been a very good team.

If anything I would say that what Arteta has done to ‘man-up’ Arsenal and move them away from being the ‘soft-touch’ they were has been fantastic, however, he is also hurting the team and has cost them in games and over seasons with his antics and refusal to learn. If your team is receiving ‘technical’ yellow cards, particularly, over a short period is the smart thing to do to continue to take those risks or to hold back until the storm dies down? I wrote F365 last year over the early season clamp down on throwing the ball away and waving imaginary yellow cards that saw TAA almost sent off at Newcastle and then played a role in the farce at Tottenham shortly after. I highlighted that Joelinton and Anthony Gordon had both kicked the ball away several times with no consequence while Udogie on a second yellow did the same in the Tottenham game with no punishment. Early season clampdowns by referees are a farce precisely because they inconsistently apply the rules, they seem to target a few high-profile moments/players/teams to get their point across, and then we don’t see the new rule enforced beyond the 5th week of the season leaving everyone to ask what the point of that was?

It’s the same here – Arsenal have fallen foul twice now and hasn’t learned a thing. Instead, they are drawing more attention to themselves with the histrionic reaction to every marginal decision and Arteta is at the head of that just as he was at Newcastle and at Anfield a few years in a row where his and his backroom staff antics on the touchline resulting in the crowd warming up to the task at hand. The smart thing to do with ‘dark arts’ (that telling the goalkeeper to sit down so they can run a tactics session will be next to be properly highlighted and addressed by the powers that be) is to use them subtly and sparingly and when they are highlighted pull back a little. Arsenal have learned the dark arts but they haven’t mastered them yet and I don’t think they will win the title until they do.

Regards,

Lindsay, Dublin.

Think the unthinkable

Harking back to the penalties win Arsenal got against Porto last Spring , I chatted about the prospect of prioritising.

Given the English champions are going to be without their best player for quite a while and given that he himself was talking about ‘going on strike ‘ seemingly based on the ridiculous new club World Cup competition which , to me, seems like an agenda pushed by oil rich middle eastern torturers to get their teams to play the European big guns .

I cannot fathom how Arteta’s team at Arsenal F.C. for example, cannot clearly decide to prioritise the league .

As clubs ‘change entire elevens for the league cup – do it in Europe, do it in the FA Cup too ! Allow your star players the rest they clearly need . Martin O. would doubtlessly have a mutter about it .

I think everyone can agree that the calendar is asking too much of the finest players . Yet in spite of this , it continues to be unthinkable to state ‘ right , from this weekend onwards we are not going to prioritise Europe or cups at all’ .

Send the entire squad off for a short holiday while only elite players who need minutes to get back to full fitness stay behind .

Ironically, ( I say ironically as it’s the money men who have facilitated this ) CFC are in a position to do this and we may see them profit come spring time and further.                  Saka and Rice , for just two examples are ‘ in the red zone ‘ .

The money men within the club are certainly not going to protect the players . Greed is f**king up the product, yet they are blind to everything except making more money . A decent reflection of some areas of society.

An unconnected point to finish . When any ref that accepted the hospitality of Abu Dhabi has a job to referee a City game – they are simply opening themselves up for being laid into . A clear conflict of interest akin to the food ( mass produced substances sold as ‘food’ ) industry .

Peter. ( Ter Stegen’s injury is a huge issue for Hansi ) Andalucia.

The conspiracy

Interesting from TG Arsenal that there must be an agenda against his club and the conspiracy is real. While there are a lot of shenanigans historically in football it seems to me to be a bit of a stretch to say the whole is the PL is out to get Arsenal, why Arsenal in particular I am not overly sure, as they didn’t appear to be doing the same to Liverpool when they were knocking on the door (god knows they have their fair share of intense emotional fans who may love a conspiracy theory too)?

Before the advent of the megabucks football and clubs Arsenal were like a lot of the decent sized clubs, good every 20 years or so, win a few trophies, drift back a bit, come again and win some more. Even in the last 10 years trophies were won reasonably regularly. Now there is a decent team there with a shot, suddenly everyone is out to get them, all the referees are in the pocket of big oil, the Premier League obviously, probably TFL at this stage. Again, why?

The PL makes tons of money on the back of it being the best league in the world and the dream that anyone can beat anyone. Why would they risk tarnishing the brand by, you know, actually bringing 115 charges against the best team in the league, surely if they are in the pocket of City they would have done what UEFA did, slap on the wrist, nothing to see here, we move on.

Deep down I kinda hope TG is correct and there is a JFK like conspiracy to keep the mighty Arsenal in check. How else can you explain an horrendous decision like a player on a yellow card barging a guy in the back, kicking the ball away and being a bit of a tit getting a second card, Oliver Stone is buying the rights as we speak.

Re Ash Metcalfe comments about not being sure why he finds Arteta annoying, I think it’s just because he is one of those managers that if you don’t support the club he is very annoying, a bit like Klopp at Liverpool only Arteta appears to lack any of the laters charisma and charm that allowed him to get away with a lot of stuff. And his sulky sideline demeanor makes him look like a later stage Jose without any of the past glories.

Mel – Dublin, Berlin, Athlone Town

TG, Arsenal suggests that “journalists should ask their sources that question. It’s better than handing out presumptive clean chits.” However, asking conspiracy theorists their opinions is a not big feature of sound journalistic practice, unless the story is about the many silly opinions conspiracy theorists hold. A journalist writing a story about cheating in the EPL would probably want to seek sources that know facts and/or have evidence and whistles to blow.

Since everybody’s talking about it, this is why I’ve come to dislike the Gunners under Mikel Arteta. He was a fine player and seems to be an excellent manager, but he has never admitted a mistake and appears never to have seen a good call against his side. I suspect that his continuous gaslighting of reporters and supporters is to blame for so many Arsenal supporters’ absurd and insulting insistence that “the refs are agin us.”

The Mailbox has seen some wild claims from Gunners over the last few days, starting with “everybody is supporting City against Arsenal.” It makes me shake my head and roll my eyes, but I remind myself that they are at least providing a spectacle.

Chris C, Toon Army DC

Dodgy?

Michael Oliver has been paid £20k a pop to officiate matches in the United Arab Emirates.

The official sponsor of the United Arab Emirates league is the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). ADNOC are a United Arab Emirates state-owned company.

The United Arab Emirates are also the owner of Manchester City football club.

The current director of football at Manchester City is Txiki Begiristain. Prior to this Bergiristain was director of football at Barcelona between 2003 – 2010. Last year, Barcelona FC and various club officials were found guilty of bribing referees with around €7.3 million via an intermediary between 2000 – 2018. Txiki Begiristain has not been charged with bribery and corruption.

Txiki Begiristain and Khaldoon Al-Mubarak (CEO of Manchester City, a UAE official, and board member of ADNOC) has assured manager Pep Guardiola that the club will be cleared of all 115 charges of of alleged breaches of financial regulations.

So we have an English referee that has never once sent a single Manchester City player off, getting an all expenses trip to referee a no-bit game in the UAE, the lavishly paid trip was sponsored by an oil company whose board member happens to be the CEO of Manchester City, who has appointed a director of football from a team embroiled in a referee bribary scandal, and both of them have denied they’ve cooked the books to cheat financial regulations.

The Greasy Strangler 

Matt MCFC’s email would be taken more seriously if City didn’t surround the ref at every minor indiscretion (there’s plenty of pictures out there of 5-6 of them at a time not being booked) or Kyle Walker didn’t spend five minutes crying that (irony) we’d played the free kick too quickly for him.

Not to mention Rodri on the deck after three seconds because he literally moved into the way of Kai Havertz to try and get him carded quickly. The tactic here, in case you weren’t certain, was for Havertz to pick up this early card, then Akanji could go down later holding his face after a contested header, leading to the German being sent off by your friend (and not mine) Michael Oliver.

Unfortunately for Rodri, this didn’t work, but fortunately for City, that minor shirt pull by Trossard was way, way, way worse than Haaland steaming into people twice without punishment. On him by the way, how rattled was he of that viral clip of Saliba last season? Good on Big Willy getting straight up and making zero fuss of it whatsoever, let’s see the big man do it when Saliba’s not off balance and in mid air winning the ball already.

It’s also all far easier when the ref is quite literally in your owner’s pocket.

So yeah we might bitch and moan and piss and cry. But we’re not the only ones and I really do think people should stop acting as such.

Cheating though? Good luck in court x

Joe, AFC, East Sussex

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The innocence of City

I know it’s been done to death but I really wish city would stop saying they’re innocent. They’re not. There is actual evidence they’re not. Evidence which they never disproved or countered.

What city did was argue the evidence was stolen from them and is therefore inadmissable (not true but I’ll get to it) and when that didn’t work they ran down the clock for a year. At no point did they prove the evidence was false and it would have a been a good trick if they did since it was their own internal documents that proved it.

On the subject of stolen documents they’re not inadmissable, it’s up to the judge to determine if they can be used or not and each occasion is based on its own merit, so the judge in this case will determine if those stolen documents can be used in court or not. Typically speaking it depends on who brought the action to court and what part they played in the theft. In the event the claimant had no part in the theft it’s often ruled admissable. The premier league had zero part in the theft of those documents so I expect they’ll be ruled admissable, though again it’s down to the judge to decide.

Cities case has never centred around being innocent , they just think the public is too dumb to understand law so they say they’re innocent while doing their best to prevent actual evidence from being admitted. Just remember, they’re not arguing the evidence is incorrect, they’re not arguing it’s false, they’re arguing it’s stolen and therefore can’t be used.

They’re not even suing the guy who stole it for defamation because they know they would lose that suit.

City know the evidence proves their guilt. They know it’s accurate. That’s why they don’t want it allowed into the case. So if they want to say a crime was committed against them (it was) then go ahead because that’s true. If they want to say they don’t believe the evidence should be used because it was stolen (it was) then go ahead. But don’t keep saying you’re innocent because your own documents prove you’re not. That is actually false.

Lee 

Wenger cryarasing?

There is one, or shall we say two, things that stood out from Wenger’s cry arsing that we should take a moment to acknowledge.

By things I mean names.  The first, is the delightful Shawcross.  Wenger asking whether he goes for the ball or not became thoroughly pertinent for a young Aaron Ramsey and his shattered leg.  A potentially career ending challenge on a young lad just starting out.

The second is the targeting of another young player, Eduardo.  We can’t quite forget the mouth-clasping, vomit-suppressing looks on the Arsenal players faces in 2008.  Dislocated ankle and broken tibia, if i remember right.

Cryarsing? Maybe. Premonition? Who knows.  Cryarsing when absolute rage was probably the right answer?  Certainly.

(But then the editorial team at F365 new this and most likely it’s a fishing exercise for read responses)

Bait. Taken

Alex

The Ox

I’m not wading into the mess that is Man City whining Vs Arsenal “dark arts”, but I will reply to Eric in LA who seems incredibly bitter that Arsenal are currently the strongest challenger to Man City – “our challenge is better than your challenge” – stay classy my man.

It was his comments on Oxlade Chamberlain that got me head scratching though… “We signed him.. (from The Arsenal) and once bedded in, he went on a rather sharp ascent”. Did he though?

In 198 games for Arsenal he scored 20 and assisted another 28, for 48 goal involvements or 1 every 4.1 games.

In 146 games for Liverpool he scored 18 and assisted another 15, for 33 goal involvements or 1 every 4.4 games.

He also scored some crackers for us you know.

Anyway, more importantly why do referees still scribble on their little coloured cards when they book someone? If it’s just a list of infractions then surely the 4th official could keep track of this. Maybe they’re writing their memoirs.

Alay

I love cramp

Hi there,

Simon S from Cheshire asks “Also, has a player ever gone down with cramp when on the losing side? Winning cramp is a thing?”

Bournemouth defender Milos Kerkez went down twice with cramp in the closing minutes of Liverpool-Bournemouth game on Saturday with his team 3:0 down, which I remember finding noteworthy for precisely the reason he implies.

Dara O’Reilly, London