Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Laurent Koscielny spoke to Sky after the 1-0 win over Burnley today, to try and clear up who it was that scored that late winner*.
They didn’t provide much clarity, but here’s what they said. I particularly liked Koscielny answering whatever question he liked, not necessarily the one he was asked. And his face in the picture!
On whose goal it was
Ox: I think you’ll know better than us. It’s hit both of us at some point. But it doesn’t matter, the important thing is that we managed to squeeze it in at the end, and that’s one of the biggest wins we’ll have this season for sure.
On whether Koscielny wants to claim the goal
Kos: It was a hard game, but you know we had the opportunity to score during the game. We had to push ourselves to win this game.
Was it handball?
Kos: I don’t know. I tried to smash the ball with my right foot. I didn’t see where the ball was going, and I don’t know if I touched the ball with my hand but the ref gave us the goal, and you need to respect the decision.
On how Burnley made it hard for Arsenal
Ox: The longer it goes on and they keep it 0-0 it got tougher and tougher. You don’t, I won’t say start panicking, but you know the outcome needs to be a goal soon and you start playing a little bit differently.
We always try to play the same way, but in the end we went a little bit more direct, a cross into the box and one of us two sneaking it at the back post. It was a tough game, credit to them they defended excellently well and made it hard for us but we’re delighted with the three points in the end.
How important a result was it.
Kos: It was important to keep our run, we’ve won a lot of games and we wanted to finish with a win before the international break and we did that. Now we have to keep out feet on the floor.
We played well against Chelsea and Basel, but today the movement, the speed of our passing was a little bit less and we needed to push ourselves more and more. Tonight we are happy with the three points.
On Spurs win over Man City
Ox: We heard about that result before the game but we need to keep focus. That does us all a favour and brings us all together, but at the end of the day we did what we needed to do and we’ll come back to push on after the international break.
—
* For clarity, replays show it was Koscielny’s goal
Pretty clear offside too, but fuck it!
handball possibly but not offside
If Ox touches it first and then it bounces off Kos, it is offside. If Kos touches it at the same time, which replays suggest, it is not. As for the handball, his hands were on his chest so it’s not necessarily a handball in this case.
actually looking at it again I think it is offside – not from Theo’s header but when Ox hits it into Kos’s hand – that looks like it happens first. Agree the handball isn’t intentional. Harsh on Burnley all round though.
Oh well feck it it’s a goal!!!
i that was a handball then we should have had two penalties anyway, so def worth the 11-0.
anyway. fuck ’em!
It’s quite a funny consequence of the offside rule. Let’s suppose it hit Kos’s face (not arm!): then whether it is offside or not depends on whether Ox made contact with the ball, but yet that would be an irrelevant technicality, since it clearly makes no difference to whether the goal would be ‘fair’ or not.
Not handball, but definitely offside. Let’s just take the luck and don’t forget this when one does against us later in the season.
I don’t think there was anything clear about that goal
Haha are we just going to ignore that if it wasn’t for kos’ presence, Chambo would have skied the ball from a meter away? I’ll take it haha
The defensive solidity was great. I was happy to see Mustafi bossing the physical battles with Vokes. There were still a couple of ‘those’ moments, but I never felt overly worried about letting a goal in. That said, Burnley weren’t overly ambitious either, but we’re mixing it up nicely against teams with different strengths at the moment & long may that continue. It was a lucky goal, but who gives a shit, Burnley sat behind the ball for most of the game & switched off before the final whistle blew.
Popopopopopoker face…
LMFAO! You get all my thumbs.
Credit to Walcott for the assist/header.
Incredible, I was thinking in the last ten that we might miss Giroud’s aerial ability, then Walcott goes and gets his head to it for the assist … Walcott!? Get in.
Came inches away from scoring an outstanding goal himself too! This is exactly the kind of game where last season’s Walcott would have completely faded early in the second half and been taken off after 65 minutes. So different this time round. Still a little early to make this comment I suppose, but right now all I can do is shudder and think about how three months ago I wanted Walcott out of the club to make way for Jamie Vardy :/
Kos loves a clutch goal doesn’t he?
it was already his 22nd for the club. Not a bad numer for a center back.
And all his goals are important. He is the anti-Vela in goalscoring. Important non-chipped scrappy goals.
I’d give it to Kos – look closely and Ox’s “shot” is going wide.
Look also at the Burnley defender who is on the far post, who decides to run away from the post just as the cross is about to come in!
To be honest, it looked like the Ox’s shot may just clear the bar!
But I’d give it to him. If it was given to Le Boss, they would say it was a hand ball.
Hope this will spur us on to just keep going to the end for every match, not drop our heads.
he said spur … sniggers!
Ox actually did not touch the ball, what he felt was the outside of Koscielnys foot as he shot with his inside up on his own hand (unintentional in the same way the burnleyplayer did some minutes earlier) So no offside and since penalty was not given for that earlier handball the goal was correctly given imo.
It doesn’t matter. The main thing is we kept going. There is a bit more maturity and patience to the side. Remember how UNited use to get away with it and snatch so many late wins? That said, we need alternatives to break teams down. Would have loved to see Giroud on. Not sure where he is (nursing the old toe still I presume) Felt we had run out of ideas. Ball kept going wide and we kept putting it into the box with no target man and 10 Burnley players packed into the box. In the end we profited… Read more »
Is it possible for the goal to be canceled by the FA? It was handball (unintentional) and offside (ref’s problem, not ours) after all. Has there been any precedent in recent history?
Not a chance. A result is never changed even if the decision had been wrong.
What did I just read.
I don’t think he gets out much.
Says the shit keyboard warrior.
Dude, chill the feck out.
Mate the FA won’t even retroactively give a suspension 99.99% of the time, you think they’re going to take 2 points from us?
Well they’ve done it before. Snigger……..
Have you ever watched football before?!!
Mustapha driving the team forward .. loving that ! What a buy he’s been & what a defender Can we keep him ?
I nutted
Of course Thierry would be sitting in the pundits’ studio on the day Arsenal recreated his most infamous career moment…
Ah, the face you used to make when your mom caught you with your hand in the cookie jar :p
What’s a mom?
We’ll take it – the goal. I didn’t see it,but if the ref says its ours,it certainly is. Grinding out games like these are the stuff of champions! Well done Arsenal. Keep up the good work. Those on interlull duties do please return uninjured. Good luck.
It was a beautifull agricultural goal.
scored by the least agricultural defender. (whatever that term really means, im sure Kos is as far away from it as possible lol)
We couldn’t ask for better time to score, not a sniff of time to reply.
Walcott’s assist for the goal was the most amazing for me……he had no business winning that header, given that most of the Burnley players defending the cross were heads and shoulders taller than him?…sheer determination!
It was Arsenal’s goal!
The gaffer ‘didn’t see anything’.
Classic Wenger.
Happy 20th annivesary at AFC Arsene!
Koscielny & Mustafi = 6 games, no goals conceded from open play! GIANTS!
Who cares? 3 points that’s all matters. Great teams win by any means. The rest is details. I didn’t see the game but what the hell! 3 points!
Well, it’s time we had a bit of luck. So I’m defo taking the goal. Can’t wait for a B the Numbers, though
Ox’s shot was not going in
Arsenal won (Hand of Kos), United drew, City Lost and Coquelin & Ramsey will be back after Interlull! ! In the words of the James Brown..” I feel good”…..
Spurs are the reason city lost though…that definitely put a downer on things
Why? We want spurs in second place, it’s the only thing that can guarantee us first place!
Maybe, but overall the Sp*ds-City game was a win-win-win for us no matter the result.
Whether u call it handball or u call it offside, I don’t care but I care for the 3 points we secured
We were certainly lucky but the ball hit the elbow of Koscielny by accident. There was no intent to handball. I think that the ball was on the way in off both the feet and or ankles of the Ox and Kos . When the ball was headed by Theo both the Ox and Kos were onside. Neither the Ox or Kos passed to each other and therefore neither were offside.
Who care about the handball? Some arsenal haters were already making some disturbing noise before that goal came in. I am happy for it
Those 93rd minute slam-dunk offside 0-1 motherfuckers are the best goals to celebrate.
it seems some so called Arsenal fans are more butt hurt over Arsenal’s winning goal, than the Burnley fans are, odd that.
Comment: The man in charge of the game (referee) gave the goal to Arsenal. So, whats the noise about? No one can rub off the score board now and the FA is never going to reverse the decision. Its three points to Arsenal, no more no less. Case closed!
Upon seeing the slow-motion replays, I think it’s pretty clear that it wasn’t offside as Koscielny and the Ox touched the ball simultaneously. However, I do think that was a fairly clear handball. Even though it was definitely inadvertent, I don’t know if Koscielny’s hands were close enough to his body for that to apply, and the hand definitely altered the ball’s trajectory. I remember a similar situation in the 2015 CL final, where Neymar headed the ball onto his hand and past Buffon. That goal was ruled out. I agreed with that decision and disagree with this one. HOWEVER,… Read more »
Spot on. When the hand is up in the air like that, it’s considered to be in an “unnatural position”. Placing the hand in an unnatural position is interpreted as intent on the player’s part. Therefore, it’s a handball. But, you’re absolutely right – that’s the human element of the game. How many of us Gooners were screaming for a penalty two minutes earlier? In my humble opinion, Pawson got both of those decisions wrong. Some others may think he got both right. Whatever. At least there was consistency in his application and interpretation of the rule. The two decisions,… Read more »
… and what do you think Arsene would say when asked about the goal? “I will have to watch the replays, i haven’t actually seen it”
It’s difficult these days to bet against #TheArsenal. You much remain on your toes until the ref’s final blast of the whistle. However you look at the goal it’s a goal,that is how great teams grind out wins. It is three valuable morale-boosting points. Give it to either the Ox or to Cos,it doesn’t really matter.