Arsenal were made to pay for their profligacy in front of goal as John McGinn’s early strike, coupled with more controversial decisions by the officials, helped Aston Villa to a 1-0 win at Villa Park.
Here’s what the managers, players and pundits had to say after the game.
Mikel Arteta on his side’s dominance not leading to goals…
We had so many big opportunities, some of them we didn’t even finish when they were completely open. We had to pick the right player to shoot and when we did it two or three times it was an open goal almost and we didn’t manage to score, but there’s not much more that we can demand from the team to play every three days. To play the way they’ve done, I am really pleased, but disappointed because in the end we didn’t have the result that we wanted.
Source: Post-game press conference
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Mikel Arteta on what he told his players after the game…
I just told them ‘pull your head up because the way you played’ I see many, many teams come here and I haven’t seen many do what we have done to them today but the result is not there but certainly the way we played it was there.
Source: BBC Sport
"CLEAR & OBVIOUS!" 😠
A deflated Mikel Arteta repeats the same phrase with the @Arsenal boss secretly fuming with decisions in defeat at Villa Park 🥵
🔗 https://t.co/jWa7eBkmml pic.twitter.com/wRpYwE6hwe
— Hayters TV (@HaytersTV) December 9, 2023
Unai Emery on his side’s win…
It was a tough match and we were tired, but we started the game well. They were imposing their position on the pitch, but our goalkeeper was amazing. We tried to defend and keep possession longer than we did. We competed and it was a fantastic three points in a tough week. We have to be happy but also keep balance.
Source: BBC Sport
Arsenal have conceded five goals from the last six shots on target they have faced in the Premier League#AVLARS
— Orbinho (@Orbinho) December 9, 2023
Martin Odegaard on missing chances and bouncing back…
In front of the goal we had enough chances to win the game. I felt they didn’t create anything apart from the goal. It happens sometimes. I had a few chances myself but the only thing you can do is keep going and bounce back in the next game. That’s what we will do.
Source: Sky Sports
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John McGinn on Villa’s performance…
We had the best of the first 20 minutes up until we scored. I don’t know what happened after that but Arsenal seemed to get a foot in the game, controlled it a lot more and they’re a top-quality team so their manager adjusted a few things. Did it work? Maybe, maybe not. They had a lot of the ball but not too many clear-cut chances.
Source: Sky Sports
21 – Arsenal have only come back to win one of the last 21 Premier League away games in which they've trailed at half time (D4 L16), although that one victory came in this exact fixture last season, winning 4-2 at Villa Park (1-2 at half time). Belief.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) December 9, 2023
Jamie Redknapp on Arsenal’s late disallowed goal…
It’s a bad law. It’s grazed his arm. He’s not meant to do it. If he sticks his arm out and it hits his hand, that would be handball anyway. But for whoever’s decided to come up with that as the law, I think it’s ridiculous because it’s cost Arsenal a goal.
Source: Sky Sports
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Mikel Arteta on watching from the stands…
It was what it was, I tried to adapt, I think the boys did really well to try to communicate everything that we wanted and the team had a good performance.
Source: Post-game press conference
Chances!
— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) December 9, 2023
It was a perfectly legitimate goal, correct scoreline should have been 1:1 but no the ref had already decided no goal as soon as it happened. It so blatant now it’s not even funny anymore. They really are on a mission to ensure we do not wil the league and it goes to one of the teams who’s owners provide the weekday pocket money jollies to the middle east!
We always play against 11+(VAR twats).
a goal can’t be awarded if there’s a handball from one of the attackers in the play that ended up in a goal. the rule is very clear and was correctly applied. whether the rule is good or not is another matter, but when we ask for consistency, this is the type of rule that is strictly applied in every premier league game. there’s no excuse for the penalty or the elbow in the face tho, nor the 5 minutes of aggregate time…
I think (but am not sure) that if Eddie, rather than Havertz, had kicked it in during that scramble after it touched Havertz’ hand, that it would have counted (there’s no dispute that Havertz’ touch was not a “handball” that results in a free kick to the other team). This rule, which I think is an FA rule–or maybe a Premier League rule–rather than part of the Laws of the Game, was instituted in England because it didn’t seem right to allow a goal that had, for example, bounced off an attacker’s hand or arm into the net, even if… Read more »
Wasn’t Eddie offside?
Honestly, never thought of that.
All I am going to say is … do you really think if that goal is scored down the other end its ruled out? Or at Anfield? Or at St James Park…? Not so sure. The referee guessed based on the appeal of the Villa players, not on what he actually saw, because if it took VAR basically 5 whole minutes to look at it, with different angles, at game speed and slowed down, that obviously translates to its as good as a guess. Very curious how again they were willing to meticulously comb over the footage of that incident,… Read more »
It’s not applied consistently or strictly as our game at St Lames Park showed.
The ball hit the arm of an Aston villa player first so by the letter of the law, the same one that ruled out the goal that should be a penalty to us!
There is absolutely no way the referee can give that as handball in real time. You cannot even see it clearly in slow mo, and pretty sure it touches Cash’s hand too. That’s 2 very close away games that have been dramatically impacted by very controversial decisions. But, I really think we should have beaten Villa today irrespective of the in game refereeing decisions; they were not that good. We need to win rest of 2023 games and put that Liverpoo hoo doo to rest! Up the arse!
Look. The law is an ass.
That it touches Cash’s arm first is irrelevant. That it touches Martinelli’s isn’t.
It’s fucking dumb. How can an attacker be held to such a different standard? How does that benefit the game.
Was it a farce? Yes. Did the referee see it in real time? No fucking way. Is that indicative of how the ref was itching to give every decision he could to Villa? Absolutely.
Was the law correctly applied. Sadly, yes.
We wouldn’t be worried about the “law” if the ref didn’t cheat and call a hand ball that everyone knows he didn’t see.
Arguing about the law forgives the original sin.
In the age of VAR there’s a world of difference. If the red gives it VAR has to see a clear and obvious error to disallow it and there was nothing clear about what happened in that passage looking at the replays. It would have been very hard for VAR to chalk it off according to their own protocols (as we saw at Newcastle) so it absolutely makes a difference whether the ref gives it at first or not.
Martinelli wasn’t on the pitch; you must mean Havertz?
If it touches Cash’s arm, then it does matter as he is preventing a goal. Also, it probably doesn’t touch Havertz’s arm, if it doesn’t touch Cash’s arm first…if it touches either of their arms that is, which I don’t think is clear no matter how many replays you watch…and certainly impossible to see in real time.
It is a goal FFS regardless of any handball laws, rules or interpretation thereof…any idiot can see that!
The ref, Gillette or whatever he’s called (loves to screw us over) – only blew once the ball was in the net and the villa players were complaining- but why not leave it to VAR to sort it out? There is no way in hell they would of disallowed it after the Newcastle debacle. Or wait…it’s Arsenal. They would of disallowed it anyway.
It would have been chalked off either way. Quite similar to bournmouth’s fourth (lols) at Old Trafford. That was taken away by VAR. In my mind both should have counted, the hand balls didnt materially affect the play, and both were clearly accidental.
Am I the only one who finds Peps post match fraternizing with his players an act of showmanship and boring? I Mean hes full on Oscar mode it’s cringey
Got to love Man Utd! Whenever we have a bad day they find a way to soften the blow and cheer us up. Thank you Manchester United and screw VAR again.
I no longer care about them enough for their results to cheer me up in any meaningful way
That’s where I am as well but the thought of Man U being so poor that them losing no longer cheers me up, actually cheered me up.
Fine that did cheer me up. Touché 🙂
Flawless logic there sir!
The PGMOL needs to be investigated for being absolutely shite. Refereeing in general is getting worse and worse. Maybe retired footballers should form a consortium and try overthrowing them and actually have footballers refereeing games, probably have to be lower league ones to avoid biases in certain big fixtures.
I agree. As a side note though, Jesus really needs to get more canny with fouls. His trapdoor legs routine when touched makes it look like a dive, and puts refs off. It’s annoying and unnecessary. Just fall down like a real boy….
Arteta tried to raise the prospect. And he’s being made an example
Of as a result. Ranks have been closed, favours called. Media engaged. And managers are being shown what happens to them if they complain. They. And their team – get shafted.
Unless I’ve missed developments, Jamie Redknapp taking Arsenal’s side on something should mean pigs fly today.
Shocking honestly… Jamie Redknapp of all people being the one righteous man in Sodom
And Lineker too! He has now switched to wanting VAR to go away after being a proponent originally
The OptaJoe stat does not sound very promising. Is it a tactical issue, mentally heads go down issue or both? If we are serious about winning this league we have to find a way to win more games that we trail in and find a miracle to get passed VAR fking us over and over and over and over again.
Honestly, I suspect (although without looking at other stats) that most teams who are trailing at half time lose the match….dont think the stat says very much other than it’s hard to score goals and especially hard when you’re 1-0 down
Time span as well
Yes, would like to see the data from all teams before commenting on that state.
Yeah, probably most teams lose the match if trailing away games, but if we need to challenge for the title again and win this time we have to turn them into wins.
Perhaps I am seeing with my heart and not my eyes, but did the ball not strike Cash’s arm, in front of his body before it touched anything else? I saw a handball on Villa first. I also saw a red card on Eddie-no elbow to the head on someone who has gone past you is incidental. Plus in the 60th or 70th minute McGinn cleaned someone out mid calf on the near sideline. Unfortunately the ref turned away before the collision. Felt like a WWE ref move. It also felt like we often lost the ball after multiple, uncalled,… Read more »
Jared Gillett has been a pain for us ever since his first appearance on VAR in 2019 when he hadn’t even refereed a PL match after his arrival from Australia. He’s since had various inputs to AFC losing/ not winning games.
I can’t understand why we can’t get him banned from our games.(as a Liverpol fan)
When the referees were fair days, we used to beat them easily even with David Platt running around for them.
Ted Drake scored 7 against them there once!
Since when can u elbow off the Ball and only get a yellow of all the bad var calls thats the worse for me same re newcastle seems agaisnt us an elbow only counts as a red if u break a nose.
Corrupt refs get away with cheating, because every week you hear one of these 2 sentences from every team:
1. “We won, so we’re not going to talk about refs“.
2. “ We lost, but the refs weren’t the main reason why”.
And , if a manager does have the guts to speak, they’re severely dealt with.
Winning and losing managers need to agree to pile up on the refs without mercy after every game with a horrendous referee performance.
Very true. If a manager speaks they’re in trouble. If they don’t, VAR will continue its agenda and incompetence with no recourse. VAR is no longer helping to referee the beautiful game. They’re just using the rules of the game as they see fit to suit whatever narrative they want. The anti-Arsenal agenda is clear as day.
Hate to say this. But Arsenal lost a top top goalkeeper in Martinez. He is an idiot but he is top top.
Arsenał are a producer of top goalies (for other teams) Fabianski, Szczęsny, Leno & Martinez can attest to this
It’s becoming a bit of a dangerous situation with the corruption or incompetence at the top. I’m baffled why there hasn’t been more journalists looking into this (and not just Arsenal but at all the dodgy decisions). If they’re so skilled at working out to nth degree Xg etc then looking at patterns here would be easy. Yet no once is. And I’ll just leave this here as there are obvious parallels to what we’re seeing from PGMOL. There are three main characteristics of a dictatorship. Dictators tend to resort to force or fraud to gain power. (In this case… Read more »
Unai Emery on his side’s win…
Good ebening.
Ball hits Cash’s arm, no consequence. Ball hits Kai’s arm a split second later — goal disallowed. The highest consequence there is. That’s the state of the rules.
And only in the PL. Great job guys.
Whilst the rules as they are strange in that an inadvertent defensive handball is ignored an attacking isn’t. However, I think Cash’s handball could have been seen as stopping the ball going into the goal/unnatural position. I think if that incident had been in a European match a penalty would have ensued and Cash may have been red carded. This then is about rule interpretation rather than laws of the game. Either way not treating a handball differently by an attacker and a defender doesn’t work. As it stands it was a marginal call, unlike the penalty that should have… Read more »
I’m coming around to the idea of any hand touching the ball is punished, as this would rule out referee’s interpreting players intention and the ridiculous “arm in a natural position. Then we’d all know where we stand.
As of now a defender can stop the ball in the box with an arm or hand and say they didn’t mean it.
Have rewatched the video and it is a mess. Touched cash first and I think second. Don’t think it touches Kai until before his scoring touch. On the way down. I could be wrong. the thing is it is impossible to get this right. Real time it is a guess. On video it isn’t clear. This is a huge lesson to all var supporters, video does not eliminate judgement. It may make it better, but is the disruption worth it? ( this is som thing that could be studied btw with reasonable conclusions.) My view was and remains, make the… Read more »
Is it the done thing to say that, defensively, Ben white has been a bit crap this season? Going forwards, still so good, but defensively he’s been found wanting time and time again. Needs to go back to basics.