Nobody is that impressed with Man United beating Southampton 9-0. Are you? Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com
There’s always one…
Manchester United score nine goals and still Bruno Fernandes needed a penalty to get on the scorecard.
Dushyant (Kleberson>Bruno) Jamwal
Not that impressed
After all, we did the same thing against 10 men…
Rob (poor Southampton), Leicester
Ole is a genius
Tactical innovation by Ole. Ditch the penalty per game strategy in favour of early red per game. Absolute genius that man.
Niraj (just a good boost for our top 4 quest, nothing more so don’t get too excited) Tampa USA
Luke Shaw: Not all that
Very interesting conclusion from Sarah Winterburn about Luke Shaw’s form – if memory serves me right, based on the hoopla following the Liverpool vs Chelsea game earlier this season, I thought that any statistics of a player garnered in a half against 10 men were completely inadmissible?
Btw, it took Thomas Tuchel 75 minutes to realise that Ben Chilwell is not a £50m pound wing back, he’s still by far England’s best out and out left back. I’ve always had a soft spot for Shaw and it’s great to see him finding proper form again, but he still has a tendency to get caught ball-watching and make rash challenges. In the last month alone, he should’ve been sent off against Burnley, and there’s no way Mo Salah scores the first goal in the FA Cup if Shaw, caught ball watching, tracks his run. He’s still got a way to go yet.
Alex
Fred?
Just wanted to write in to say that I really like the idea of Fred being left-back…
Left back in the dressing room.
Thomas (Bednarek should have left it – zero chance of Fred scoring at the back post) MUFC
Dear Mr Hassenhuttl…
I’m sorry for that performance last night. It certainly wasn’t what was planned, let me assure you. I would never do that to another manager. For sure not to someone who’s already been there and got the t-shirt, so to say. I know our goal difference wasn’t great but thanks for the helping hand anyway. I hope the young lad recovers from the probable physical beating at half time too. I did ask the lads to take it easy but you know what young lads are like and they just wouldn’t listen. Not for the first time this season may I say. Anyway, the ending somehow made it worse. As if Wan-Bissaka scoring wasn’t terrible enough for you, Dan James must have been like a knife in the guts.
So anyway sorry again. I mean it’s not like lightning can strike twice is it.
Yours
OGS
P.S. thanks also for allowing Martial to look half decent again. God knows I’ve been trying.
Steve (ex-Flixton Red ), Ontario
Martial law
Antony Martial, you are an utter disgrace. This is his second blatant dive in the last three weeks and has resulted in Bednarek getting a three match ban and incredibly has left a horrible stain on a 9-0 victory.
I would implore all football fans (including Man Utd fans) to condemn Martials continual diving. It is cheating and because of the impotence of the lawmakers its become an acceptable practice. It will bite every team in the bum at some some stage or another and it leaves a sickening feeling, it is up to fans to make their feelings known, because even managers, coaches and clubs seem happy to defend players cheating.
Dale (Ban diving) Marlow
Silly, silly sending-offs
After reading the rules regarding last nights sending offs I don’t think it’s the rules that are an issue. In fact the rules are perfectly clear it is just that the refs we have in charge are completely and utterly useless and have no idea what they even mean.
For example it states that a if a player makes no attempt to play the ball it should be a red card. Okay I’m fine with that and I’m fine with that on the basis that the non attempt to play the ball means a pull of the shirt, or a deliberate trip, dirty foul or foul where they had no chance of getting the ball. However these deluded refs think that an accidental trip caused by the act of running in a straight line equals an instant red because of the fact that the player made no attempt to play the ball. The player didn’t make an attempt at anything. Utterly ridiculous refereeing not ruling.
Frankie AFC
Let’s talk…
No doubt there will be many arguments about this incident. Let’s get the easier one out of the way. Was it a penalty? Yes. I would be furious if we didn’t get one if that happened to us. Put aside whether we should have gotten one as well in this game. That’s relevant only from a consistency perspective.
There is some suggestion there was no contact. That’s highly unlikely. The attacker couldn’t be sure where Luiz was and to think he went down without contact when clear through on goal is bizarre. It’s not clear from the video but it doesn’t take a lot to bring down someone at full speed. Luiz stumbling after that suggests there was some contact.
There is also the idea that even if there was contact, it was accidental and hence not a penalty. I think there is a way to accommodate this view, but only in extremely clear circumstances where no one could reasonably expect there was any intent. For instance, if another attacker pushes Luiz, who then brings down the player through on goal. The exemption should not apply when the defender could have avoided the contact (this distinction is I think quite key in the red card decision). Luiz was basically caught out, and decided to put himself in harm’s way. He could try not to run behind a player in a way that the other player’s foot does not (ahem) “accidentally” catch his knee. Alright, maybe it was accidental and Luiz is just prone to these. (Cue Brando: “Women and children can afford to be careless, but not men”.) Accidental contact must be narrowly defined to only include actions that are totally out of the control of the offending player. The key question is whether Luiz had a choice. In my view, he did.
So penalty for me. Now, was it a red card?
The rule about the red card for not attempting to play the ball was designed to punish deliberate acts of cynical foul play. It is easily understood when the defender makes a rugby tackle for instance. There is a whole other debate about what constitutes a genuine attempt to play the ball. But Luiz clearly had no opportunity to play the ball and so the rule about it being a yellow if he tries to play the ball does not come into the picture at all. (There seems some merit in the argument about double jeopardy. Here though, we run into the often troublesome issue about the interpretation of fouls inside and outside of the box. Should a yellow be given just because a penalty has already been given? But I think this is a fallacy, because penalties are not certain goals and so it isn’t really double jeopardy in all cases. Perhaps the solution then is that if the penalty is scored, the player is not sent off? Though this runs into the same problem of consistency of application. Should the player be sent off if the offence is outside the box, and the free-kick is scored? What if a team decides to play the odds and deliberately miss the free kick or penalty if it was early in the game, or if the offender was the most influential player, or both?)
Anyway it seems our discomfort is with the fact that Luiz might be innocent, that he didn’t mean to trip the attacker and so the red card seems very harsh. This is neither here nor there. If we believe it was accidental, there is no penalty and no red card. The rule is clear and we need only debate whether it was a penalty or not, and not whether it should be a red card. In my mind, the rule works well because it shapes behaviour for the betterment of the game. It places the onus for playing the right way on the players, as it should.
Tired (but encouraged by the first half) Gooner
Done with David Luiz
Arsenal can demonstrate better than most, multiple ways to lose a league match. We even had Leno going full Almunia.
The definition of brain fart is “A temporary mental lapse or failure to reason correctly”. Arsenal have done a good job of getting rid of temporary mental lapse type players, players that when they make an error it usually leads to a goal, but we still have, David Luiz.
The red card is incredibly harsh. A yellow and a penalty is what should have been given, but then I heard who the VAR ref was…John Moss, the worst ref in the league and nobody seems to notice.
But, the root cause is Luiz, he “challenges” Willian Jose in the middle of the field, allowing Willian Jose to bring the ball down, leaving a gaping hole for… you guessed it… WIllian Jose to turn and run into on the return pass. He’s slow to react and, well, slow now.
So, Holding doesn’t know whether to press the player in possession or go with the runner, he does neither and we play like we have Mustafi and Sokratis in the center of our defence all over again. I thought they both just left in the transfer window…?
On the weekend Luiz got man of the match vs United. Had Cavani scored those two massive chances we would have been talking about how Luiz had no idea where Cavani was for either, or again was slow to react. Funny how a game can shape a narrative.
Anyway, it’s time to move on to Gabriel and Mari and bench Luiz. The team is on a good track, that losing run before xmas is the reason we are where we are, not last night.
He’s been the strangest player to follow, I don’t despise him, nor love him, it’s been fun at times but ya know, goodbye, David Luiz.
Strevs, AFC, Canada
Thanks for the laughs
Nothing like another delightful episode of Arsenal to get me through another week of lockdown.
Jon (it really is the little things), Lincoln
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