Well – it finally happened, after weeks of brushing over bad decisions and glossing over refereeing inconsistencies we finally got one!!!
MOTD gave us a 3D virtual replay!
*joy*
And once more it 'proved' beyond a shadow of a doubt that we lost points due to a ropey bit of reffing... I would assume that we only got virtualised as it was a stunning bit of skill that Theo Walcott pulled off to keep the ball in play (and then pick out RvP) and it's an international w/e coming up. Another reason why it's good to have the golden child in your team... if that had been Eboue or some other tricky Arsenal foreigner then I doubt that it would have even made the highlights.
First of all we did drop points that we shouldn't have but the game well and truly stank from the off – it was a 'game of two halves' in so much as we clearly didn't seem that bothered about scoring in the first half as we just nudged up against the Sunderland defence for 45 minutes – in the second half we went for it a bit more and then got punished for it by yet another midfield screamer... was that their only shot on target? Any lessons learned on that one then?
No – obviously not... great goal though from Leadbitter – seeing goals like that makes me wish that Rosický would hurry up and get fit so he can bang in a few in reply.
It's all looking a bit bleak for us at the moment with regards to our title aspirations... it is clear that we are being held back at this stage but unlike last season we seem to be just going along with it – this could be the plan... I mean – why play your hearts out if you are just going to get stopped again? Right?
So while another perfectly legitimate Arsenal goal it judged invalid by the linesman who clearly couldn't see what he was ruling on; Man U are helped along to 3 points after Vidic mugs Brown in the area allowing Brown (the other one) to score their opener – there seems to be a secret Ref manual out there with the following advice:
"An an official in the Premiership it is important that you make the 'right' decisions, if at any time you are unsure as to which way to a decision should go you should consider the following:
If one of the teams in question is either: Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Newcastle or Manchester City – then you should always rule your decision in favour of their best interests.
If one of the teams in question is either: Arsenal, Everton, Fulham, Aston Villa, Tottenham or Blackburn – then you should always rule your decision against their best interests.
If none of the above applies then you should just go with your gut instinct... or whomever you have your money on at the time. If conflicting, i.e. 'favoured' or 'unfavoured' teams are playing each other then you should seek advice from your supervisor as to the direction of the decision bias to be implemented... or just go with whomever you have your money on at the time."
I hate to say it but Tottenham do get a rough time from the refs too... and yes - Newcastle really are that shit and they are going to require plenty of help (again) to stay up this season... this is one of the many ways that handicaps can be imposed on teams who over perform and vice versa... a bit like Horse Racing really – last season Arsenal were like 'Phar Lap' – we kept winning and the weights kept piling on and on until eventually the metaphorical arsenic came out and stopped us in our tracks... utterly disgraceful – but nobody really noticed, not even most of the Arsenal fans.
This season Wenger seems to be playing it differently – are we holding ourselves back for the final furlong so we can position ourselves to edge it by a nose… or are we just concentrating on winning the Champions League?
Or, alternatively, we may have succumbed to some kind of external influence and we are now mucking in with all the other shady bastards in this league... time will tell.
