Arsene Wenger says Olivier Giroud insisted he did nothing to merit a second yellow card after he was sent off in the closing stages of the 1-1 draw with PSG last night.
The 29 year old seemed to fall victim to some gamesmanship from Marco Veratti and Marquinhos while the referee’s back was turned, and both he and the Italian midfielder were issued second yellows by
The ball was on the other side, I did not see what happened. I think the first yellow card [for Giroud] was very harsh already, it wasn’t a foul. The second, he tells me he has done nothing at all and Olivier is honest so I believe him.
“And Veratti told me as well that he has done nothing, so I said look, ‘go together to see the referee and tell him you did nothing’.”
Giroud has insisted he did nothing to deserve a second yellow, saying, “Being on a yellow card, I didn’t want to make waves.
“I don’t know how Verratti falls a second time. It escalated the situation. It’s frustrating, especially since I don’t know if the referee saw what happened.
“I was really surprised at his behaviour.”
I just don’t see how any of the officials could have possibly seen what happened, and thus I don’t know how any bookings could be dished out. If the ref looked up late and saw the PSG guys pushing Giroud, then perhaps there’s a booking there, but what could he have possibly seen from Giroud to warrant a yellow? I feel like the ref just saw a scuffle involving two opposing players who were already on bookings and decided, “I’ll just send off a player a piece, seems fair enough” – but that’s a stupid fucking way to officiate a… Read more »
No further comments required on this story, Your Honour.
“but that’s a stupid fucking way to officiate a football match.” – especially when its already on th e 94th minute. Absolute bobbins
Well, no, better it happen in 94th minute rather than 1st minute. Still a stupid decision.
PSG will miss veratti alot more than we will miss giroud.
I am inclined to disagree, simply because Lucas is a total wildcard at the moment, having yet to settle into the team. A reliable bench option up top is a very real and necessary need for Arsenal, and having two strikers gives an added dimension in tactics.
I can’t think of a reason to not contest Giroud’s second yellow and red. The video evidence is there, and there’s no reason why we should lose one of two real striking options for a game.
I hope Arsenal moves quickly on this one.
Giroud has lied to you then, Wenger. If he didn’t do the completely unnecessary body check a long time after the ball had gone the ref wouldn’t have had to do anything.
I like Giroud, but he has had a few pointless red cards down the years.
Silly from Giroud, yes, but the referee (who could not have actually seen what went on) could have also just told them to stop acting like a bunch of wank flannels and got on with the last minute of the game…
Probably the first time I’ve ever defended Giroud but he clearly did nothing wrong at all…
https://youtu.be/oqalpHcsdmM
No, he didn’t. I have just seen a replay of the whole incident from a different angle from an article on the NewsNow site and it shows clearly that Giroud did absolutely nothing wrong. It was actually a PSG player that shoved him from the back into this guy (twice) and even despite the pushings, and the theatrical falling (2nd falling), Giroud neither retaliated or make any aggressive move to the perpetrator. The video showed he only raised his hands above his head, in a gesture clearly asking the player, “what the fuck are you doing?”…..i can certainly, with benefit… Read more »
Marquinhos pushes him twice and should have been the only person punished. both giroud and verratti should be very angry at him. Especially verratti as his first push on giroud sends him into verratti.
The bigger question is whether the linesman/4th official that advised the ref actually saw anything at all or was just guessing
Would have been especially infuriating had Marquinhos have scored that chance at the far post right at the end
Is there any retrospective action in the champions league? Can we appeal for a reexamination of this incident?
In the UCL the only right of appeal is, if the Ref has sent off the wrong player. If players identity is shown to be incorrect.
Whether or not Afc are able to point to Marquinhos’s involvement in the incident, as a right of appeal, I don’t know, but it appears to me that they don’t.
Body check?! Come on… all he does is stop and stand in Veratti’s way from going around him. I’ve seen more physical contact than that in line at the grocery store. The truth is that Veratti knew Giroud was on a yellow and he looked to deceive the referee. You can blame Giroud for his talking back to the referee to earn a yellow, but this one was clearly unjustified. And then Marquinhos comes in twice and shoves Giroud with all his might and gets no card. The differences? Giroud barely touches Veratti, Veratti flops, Giroud carded. Marquinhos shoves Giroud… Read more »
Should have slapped that little pecker Veratti in the mouth!
Next time just be the bigger man and walk away from these wind up merchants.
Silver lining – we’ll get to see more of Perez.
Go squad depth!
Or as in Wenger thoughts, more of Alexis as CF
Against Sotton Lucas wasn’t on the same wavelength as his new team mates. If they’d had a couple more games together then I think AW would have used him as CF last night but when you’re playing counter attack football you really need to be more ‘in tune’ with your team mates play.
He did walk away from the wind-up merchants. Still got a red card.
If you are getting a red make sure you go full undertaker on other dude while on the way to locker room. With Giroud and Verrati, Giroud can easily take Verrati as well as Marquinhos 1 on 2 handicapped and make them his pussies
It’s simple, Verratti must have caught sight of Giroud’s beauty and momentarily fainted.
best pov.. haha
The rich Paris Saint-Germain idiots are planning to challenge the card to Verrati. This means UEFA can look at the incident and issue a three match ban to Marquinhos. But that is supposing that UEFA have critical thinking and that they cannot be bribed, neither of which holds true. Incidentally, blogs, the By the numbers piece for the Arsenal Southampton game does not have a link of its own at all, and is not archived. The only way to get to it last weekend is to go to the match report and press the link. I am a big 7amkickoff… Read more »
Not 100% sure what you mean, it’s here: http://news.arseblog.com/2016/09/arsenal-2-1-southampton-by-the-numbers/
I see it clearly, and I apologize. Too much Veuve Cliquot. Not the bubbly, the actual widow, who is so bubbly it is intoxicating.
You been humping the Veuve? Shes’s a no good two-timing harlot…told me she was visiting her poorly mother…
Yeah ey that was a shite red. Feel bad for Giroud, the French public is already a bunch of cunts to him.
Boys will be boys!
I agree with you. If i am given a red, in circumstances like his, where video playback is later confirming, like now, that I did absolutely nothing wrong, I will definitely do an undertaker on both of them on the way to the locker room!……i might as well earn the red, seeing i was given one for doing nothing.
On a more serious note, i think we might be able to successfully appeal this as subsequent video evidence emerging clearly shows Giroud did absolutely nothing wrong.
“Oliver is honest”….tell that to his wife! Oh snap.
You can’t ‘Oh snap’ your own comment, surely?
Oh Snap!
IMO nobody should ‘Oh Snap’ anything, ever. But that’s just me.
He is merely a male of the human creature.
I don’t think you can appeal when it’s 2. yellows
really?. I didn’t know that. point taken….thanks
Lol, Wenger “go together to see the referee and tell him you did nothing’.”will that reduce their punishment (missing the next match)?
Giroud must just stop being a baby accept the red card have a one week break and come back firing to win us the league.He must score 25 goals in the league alone.Come on gunners lets support him if he doesn’t nail him at the end of the season lol
I loved Veratti’s little ”is the ref drunk?” gesture to the coaching staff as he walked to the dressing room. It was clear as day that both players did nothing to warrant a red card. Thankfully it was very late on in the game.
We were very lucky with that draw, the team selection and formation was odd at best. We could have been on the end of five or more by half time if the ego was still playing for PSG. Thankfully it didn’t but I wish AW would realise Alexis is not a striker.
They were lucky with the draw.. Iwobi could have won it for us if he had put his foot through it
I follow Ligue 1 closely. Giroud being booed is down to the Paris crowd. He (almost) singlehandedly (well single left-foot-edly to be more exact) took away the Ligue 1 title from them before they bought all their boring titles.
Believe me, outside of Paris, from Montpellier to Lille, from Marseilles to Lyon, and from Saint-Etienne to Nantes, French fans despise PSG.
Yeah, they are like the Chelsea, Man United and Man City of France all rolled into one.
Are they Chelsea or Manchester City? Is there a difference? Explain in 100 words.
“Olivier is honest, so I believe him”
I think the boss has forgot about a certain incident the night before a Palace game.. 😉
Honest as he was to his wife :p..
The Gallic temperament meets the Italian instigator. Where have we sen this before? Who is Zidane?:D
Looked like Diva Referee. All eyes on me
I was angry yesterday. If I did not watch the game and saw the result it would of been completely different. Although we got a good result it felt as bad as a 8-2 spanking from Manure. We have not developed tactically and that is a concern with the Chelsea game looming. I stated I wanted to lose against Hull of course that’s not true but it feels it might be good to hit rock bottom and try to rethink our strategies. At least the spuds lost today and their fans will be more frustrated and disappointed than us, Their… Read more »
Surely the silver lining is the point we got away from home against our stiffest competition in the group. Which is also surely much better than getting beat 8-2, and much, much better than getting beat 8-2 by the Manc scum.
“I was angry yesterday,” should read, “I am angry all the time.”
“Their is a silver lining and looking forward to toasting St. Totteridge Day.”
Sic.
You might be waiting quite some time for that.
As might I if this goes into moderation for the umpteenth time (again).
Giroud deserve card for what he did to that psg defender. If you can watch the video again and get it right. Haven booked already, he should be more careful to avoid any card again. What happened is that he was rushing down to collect ball from the guy and guy pass the ball before he get there and push the guy.
This site is quite boring with its pro-Wenger censorship. I guess the author is quite obsessed and all the ads show his real motivation, it’s sad a writer I considered quiet talented is missing the point in many ways. Cheers Andy for censoring a fair point of view and will be looking for better sites to fairly express my views in future.
Hey blogs, he considered you “quiet talented”. I have no idea what that means, but it sounds delightful. “forfuckssake”…piss off. If your opinion, or writing, was informed or decent you’d have your own site. Instead you stand on top of the train and scream directions. Thanks, though, for finding another site for your shit.
Giroud was on a (stupid) yellow them deliberately gave Verrati a little shove. Of course he’s going to try to take advantage. It doesn’t matter that Giroud then didn’t retaliate, if he doesn’t shove Verrati (and doesn’t pick up the first stupid booking for dissent) he doesn’t get sent off. End of.
I’m a big Giroud fan but I get fed up with him running his mouth.
Nothing would’ve happened had Giroud kept his mouth shut.
Hope he focuses more on his football rather than the referee and his looks
Much ado about nothing. Some people want to make more of a meal out of it.:D It happens. If it were some other player it would be described as a “rush of the red mist”. In this case, barely anything happened beyond Verrati clowning around and the ref got sold/should have applied the common sense where the players failed to. Frankly we can cope without Giroud even with Perez working in. He’ll be back sooner than later (it isn’t an injury for instance) Italians love to wind up the French as Zizou will atest. We need to take a bit… Read more »
Ref did not even see it. Sends them both off. For nothing.
I cannot blame Giroud this time. The ref was being a dick.
So for how many more days is Wenger gonna comment on that red card?
The whole team must be planning something big in the dark
Quite clear that the ref didn’t see it but one of his idiot minions did – or thought he did – and the ref just went with what the minion said. This is usually how these sorts of mistakes happen, btw. Unfortunately the minions tend to be hugely incompetent. There is actually a reason for the “if you didn’t see it you shouldn’t do anything” rule and it is to stop precisely this situation from happening.