Just in case you’re in the mood to bask a little longer following Arsenal’s 2-1 win over Brentford, here’s what Mikel Arteta had to say in his post-game interview with the BBC.
On a different match against Brentford compared to the season opener…
A different context, different players, different preparation. We are in a different stage. It was very necessary that game to get ourselves united and understand what we were analysing and don’t lose our heads and start to make nervy decisions. Today, we were really good.
On what’s changed to make Arsenal mentally tougher…
Difficult periods, they destroy you or they make you stronger. They certainly made us stronger. We have a real belief in what we’re doing. The players are enjoying themselves, the togetherness and the spirit that they have is tremendous. They just want to keep pushing themselves. We don’t know what we’re going to get. We have another game on Thursday, we’ll try to win it and go game by game.
On Saka and Smith Rowe making the difference…
They did, with the rest of the team. They have to get the headlines because they do what is most difficult, win the match with an individual action and putting the ball in the net. They need credit for that but I thought the rest of the team was really good today.
On what Arsenal have done to get Saka and Smith Rowe scoring…
If they want to play for this club and play in the front positions you have to go on the pitch and say, ‘I’m going to win the game’.
We train them, mentally prepare them. The coaches that we have, they do a lot of work with them, individually, mentally, the psychologists, everybody. And then they have to feel the belief, the belief from the club and the belief from these people, you see the supporters, how they are with them. That energy for them, it’s probably the biggest strength.
On Smith Rowe not playing much recently…
He’s been injured, that’s why he’s not played so much. He’s been injured, he was grumbling, he wasn’t fit and now he’s fit and available. He’s worked really hard and we need him at his best. When he plays like he’s done today, he’s really good.
On having a nice problem on the left flank when Martinelli returns…
That’s what we need, that we have two top players in each position, that’s what top teams do. That’s what we’d trying to build and everybody that is not playing is not happy and is pushing the other one to make him better, that’s it.
On whether he was surprised Arsenal’s penalty claims fell on deaf ears…
Yes, very surprised.
On which penalty claim he was particularly surprised wasn’t given…
Both. But it’s done, today we won’t remember. But the last few weeks we can remember a few decisions. We need clarity on that. That’s it. We won the game today and we are really happy.
I didn’t really feel any penalty incident warranted a spot kick. But
I did think that all of them combined sort of did, if you know what I mean.
But then I saw the handball peno that City got and I thought ours was possibly more clear cut.
As always, the rules are as clear as mud. So who the fuck knows anymore?
I know. City’s is a penalty, ours isn’t a penalty.
Why? Because.
I was surprised that motd didn’t do a comparison of the incidents. They didn’t look at the penalties at all
It’s funny but by Saturday evening the Arsenal game wasn’t even featured on BBC Sport’s Football page.You had the thumbnails for most of the other Saturday games but not Arsenal’s. You had to go searching for it. I am really not a conspiracy theorist but I can’t help thinking that Arsenal must have really upset the guys at the beeb.
I think the reason I don’t want those sort of penalties to be given is that I don’t want to see them go against us.
On our day we can beat any team from open play (well, most!) and I’d hate to lose or draw a game against Norwich because a penalty like one of the four we didn’t get yesterday were given.
Bar the Pepe one, which I thought was our strongest case, I’d be absolutely appalled if we got one of those against us.
conversely i thought Pepe#’s shout was the weakest! he danced over the hanging leg (credit to him) but lost his footing as he did so. that’s unlucky but not a foul
Agreed, Pepe was the weakest for me. Laca strongest shout, and the handball would be harsh but looking at the city one, if that was then ours was also
I normally agree with you, but I find your point here to be precisely the problem with officiating in the PL from one game to the next, along with the word “given,” which reinforces the power of the individual referee’s mood to affect the outcome of the match. And you support the wildly inconsistent practice?! Rules should be rules, applied evenly and consistently, with a moderate degree of interpretation based on the actual play, ensuring a level playing field for all 20 PL teams across the 38-game season. We’re losing points and losing players to red cards this season because… Read more »
Unfortunately referees are not robots. And even having robots doesn’t seem to help. Interpretation will always be a large part of decision making. The fact that pundits will watch a penalty from 8 different angles in super slow mo and still argue about the decision proves that there is no absolutism when it comes to a decision. For me, since VAR has come in, the referees have actually abandoned their biggest asset – common sense. They want to implement definite rules instead of using their instinct and experience. And a penalty is such a massive thing to give. Both games… Read more »
I think you’ve missed my point. I agree to an extent, and as I said, there should be a “moderate degree of interpretation based on the actual play” but when you leave things up to a referee’s mood, and bias, you end up with such a high level of inconsistency that you can’t possibly say with any certainty that the games are being officiated fairly and equitably. VAR should have corrected these biases and mood-based calls, but that too is wildly inconsistent. And please, Mike Dean and Jon Moss and the concept of common sense? The Neville brothers and other… Read more »
Yikes: “And clearly, the rulers of the game prefer it this way.” Wow, I don’t think another typo could have generated more ambiguity than that one! Sorry.
In other words, if it was 0-0 in an FA Cup Final against Spurs and we were awarded a ridiculously dodgy penalty in the sixth minute of injury time, you and your angelic Corinthian spirit would have a problem with it.
Well I wouldn’t.
It feels like as a result of VAR, we have had to move away from common sense refereeing to an attempt at pure consistency of rules applying. Unfortunately, the rules are fuzzy enough that this has been a complete disaster
genuine question: why don’t you think the kick to Ben White’s leg that knocked him over was not a foul? to me that seemed the clearest cut but most people seem not to think so
Maybe I need to see it again. But to me the player made contact with the ball before the player. But as I said, I haven’t dwelled on it as we won and I will happily take the points and move on.
If the ref had given any of those decisions, would VAR have overturned it?
To me, that’s the root of the problem. VAR should be able to give a definite yes/no, rather than the ‘clear and obvious’ nonsense
Or maybe the ref shouldn’t be allowed to make the decision. The game carries on and VAR make the call. I dunno. It’s definitely not working, whatever it is they are doing at the moment.
I think the issue with that option is that VAR is operated by the same pool of referees, meaning the game remains at their mercy. In theory every professional referee should be of exceptional and equal standard. VAR then exists simply to clarify actions on the pitch that were missed or difficult to see in real time, with that responsibility applied equally across games and to the same high standard. Unfortunately in reality, VAR still manages to contribute to inconsistent decisions, even with all of the available camera angles and endless capacity to replay, and the accountability that one might… Read more »
Sure we need clarity, why will there be different rules for different team’s in the same league.
Kudos to Smith and Saka
1 game down 16 to go
Don’t get your 15’s and 16’s muddled up.
That’s the difference between Cesc and Flamini.
I think I’m more aggrieved that none of the claims even warranted a look by car than the fact none were given.
Even if you feel none were penalties surely you can conceed that a couple needed looking at to ENSURE the decision was right?
The fact that VAR didn’t give the foul on Laca I still don’t understand – it was blatant. The handball and Pepe wouldn’t have been overturned if given (thanks Jon) but with both of those I still think I’d have been slightly annoyed if given against us.
And – even if (as they did) the Laca foul isn’t given – it was a clearly intended back-pass to the keeper? Defender looks staight at his keeper and then goe through Laca to desperately toe the ball to him to get it away from Laca.
So at least the indirect F/K.
I also think Laca was perfectly in line with the ball, but offside if we are considering the last defender first..not so sure, but the way they quickly wrap up anything that may benefit us is somehow.
Someone should also tell me why their goal stands, like seriously I think we’ve scored many like that and they were chalked off. I need some education on that really.
Overall, we didn’t get a VAR review for our penalty incidents. These and countless incidents against us..it takes a naive person and idiocy to think officials are not biased against us..borderline corrupt.
The next Hale Ender to come through could be Norton-Cuffy, he’s been fantastic for Lincoln City since he joined them on loan.
At least on the Peacock stream I was watching, there were no replays at all of the one on Ben White, but in real time, it looked possible. All 4 were at least in the category of “you’ve seen them given”. And we got none of them. Which is frustrating.
What’s this steaming thing you speak of 🤔🤔😉🤫
US market. Peacock ( Owned by NBC) streams most of the matches here.
The one on Laca sure looked like a penalty. Check out Leeds Man U if you’re not watching already.
Mikel has got the right attitude. We’re playing against other teams, not the referees. He’s asking legitimate questions and maybe the PGMOL is reading the analyses that show that AFC has the highest ratio (by far) of reds to fouls. Anyway, the run-in will be challenging. We have un/rescheduled away games against Chelski and Spuds to shoehorn in between a fairly challenging lineup of opponents. Only Watford is in the bottom three. It’s in our hands, because we get to play all of our closest competitors. That’s exactly what we should want. West Ham has been in poor form lately,… Read more »
Top comment. Have to agree.
Other than obvious ideas, is there a reason that Lee Mason no longer referees games but gets VAR job?
I think the most noticeable thing for me, was that some of the penalty decisions didn’t even get looked at. Perhaps they happened too quickly but I feel they warranted a look at least. The handball was also no different to the one given in the Spurs game that evening, continual lack of consistency will cost us in a game sooner or later.
Great win. Needed the second goal as well because we cannot rely on officials to make the right call always. I still don’t even get why their goal stood, I swear there were about three of their players offside with the initial cross???
I wonder if they’re prepping to unleash Martinelli at number 9 on his return???
Imagine the damage that smith Rowe on the left Saka right Odegaard pulling the stings behind with Martinelli firing up front if it all clicks together
Wonder how it feels for the squad coming from a place with too many players vying for same position, to where it is now a squad which is forced to rely on each other due to squad size and having come back from warm weather training camp to win an important game.