Starting XI: Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Chambers, Koscielny, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Wilshere, , Alexis, Iwobi, Lacazette
Subs: Ospina, Mertesacker, Maitland-Niles, Coquelin, Elneny, Walcott, Welbeck
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A late Jay Rodriguez penalty cancelled out Alexis Sanchez’s deflected free-kick as Arsenal ended 2017 with a frustrating 1-1 draw at West Bromwich Albion.
The 87th minute equaliser, netted just three minutes after the Gunners had taken the lead, was the result of a ridiculously harsh decision by Mike Dean who adjudged Calum Chambers to have handled.
The result takes Arsenal above Sp*rs into fifth on 38 points but the gap on Liverpool in fourth is now three points.
First half
The first half was a forgettable affair. Feel free to skip to the second half if you like.
The Baggies, bottom of the table at the start of play, looked like a side who were bottom of the table. Arsenal, dodgy on the road and shorn of their best player – Ozil – were similarly poor.
Chances? There were a few a few. Iwobi bent over with his right foot after a nice pass by Sanchez. The Nigeria international also tested Foster into a fumbled save with a second effort from the edge of the box. Lacazette, who often looked isolated, also had a shot deflected just wide. Again Sanchez was involved in the build-up.
At the other end, Rodriguez had an early header saved by Cech and Brunt fired a free-kick over. For the most part, Pardew’s men just fired aimless balls towards the box and hoped for the best.
The most interesting thing to happen before the break, aside from the Gunners wearing red shorts with their home shirt for the first time since 1978, was Kolasinac picking up an ankle injury and being replaced by Maitland-Niles. The Bosnian had collided with Barry a few minutes earlier.
Second half
On an afternoon of little quality, Lacazette was at the centre of all Arsenal’s best work. On 60 minutes he combined with Wilshere and Iwobi to work space in the Baggies box before firing low on the angle at Foster.
Two minutes later the France striker met a Sanchez pass with a darting run at the near post. The ball rolled just wide. Another lay-off for Sanchez was lovely but the Chilean’s first time attempt was shut down at close quarters.
Laurent Koscielny, presumably nursing his long-term Achilles problem, made way for Per Mertesacker, and not long after Welbeck replaced Iwobi.
Rodriguez saw a path to goal open up for him before shooting from 20 yards. It was straight at Cech who parried. Bellerin blocked McClean’s effort on the rebound.
It was hard to see where a goal was coming from as the game dripped into the final ten minutes. That was until Sanchez, stepping inside two West Brom players on 84 minutes, was taken out on the edge of the box. He’d had an earlier effort from similar range blocked, but this time he dusted himself down and, courtesy of a big deflection of McClean, found the bottom corner. He was mobbed by his teammates in front of the travelling support. The strike was adjudged an own goal. (1-0)
That should have been that. But it wasn’t. Because Mike Dean took matters into his own hands and awarded the home side a penalty with three minutes remaining. Kieran Gibbs in the box flicked the ball against Calum Chambers from a yard, the ball hit the Arsenal man’s hand. Penalty. It shouldn’t have been. But it was given. Cech danced on the line, Rodriguez put the ball straight down the middle. (1-1)
Chambers was furious. Wenger on the touchline, apoplectic. Wilshere got booked. And so did Cech, who’d been eyeing a 200th Premier League clean sheet, after the final whistle had gone. That pretty much tells you how bad a decision it was.
We didn’t lose. But the dropped points feel costly on a weekend when Liverpool and Chelsea picked up maximum points. We face the Blues next on Wednesday, our first game of 2018.
Mike Dean is such a git. https://youtu.be/oLoBmf26gPs to see him celebrating Sp*rs scoring against us.
Twat. why is he still refereeing.
He’s always a disaster waiting to happen…for us.
This damp squib of a result is exactly what Wenger deserves on his big day for having turned the club into the mediocrity fest that it currently is. Oh save me the ref excuse, that is so new and original under Wenger. Always someone else to blame for his own failing. Also don’t come up with the money excuse. Its nonsense. In the past 5 seasons Wegner has spent over $400 mil on players and Arsenal hv among the highest wage bills in league. The truth his Wenger’s incompetence got hid by the lack of money for a while, however… Read more »
Arsenal record with Mike Dean as referee since 2006/07:
48 games
15 wins
17 draws
16 losses
31% win rate
I’m surprised it is even that high. What a w*nker he is.
What’s our overall win rate in that time period by comparison?
Yes, Dean is a complete twat. But those stats don’t show in how many of those games we’ve been woeful & playing like complete shits. That has far more to do with the 31% win rate.yhan snythimg. Dean has just been the icing on the cake on each occasion.
It’s West Brom FFS!!!…& we draw though getting our goal by an own goal, & the conceeding just minutes later. Just typical of our current ineptitude. Oh to be a Goomer 🙁
In the Premier league, our win rate by season since 2006-07 has never gone under 50%, and has been well over 60%.
All of the Dean stuff can be found in the aftermath of the Chelsea debacle in 2015
During that period, Arsenal have been as shit as Mike Dean has been a cunt.
1 poor decision shouldn’t be a factor against the worst team in the league.
Wenger out!
What does that even prove. Suppose there is a ref under whose watch Arsenal have a 60% win rate, does that show he favors Arsenal?
This stat is neither here nor there.
I’d go and enjoy the new year celebrations if I were you instead of posting a useless rant like this.
What are you talking about 400M? Maybe something like 300? which is alot still but thats nothing compared to other 4 clubs Liverpool, Chelsea, Man U&C.
Yes they have high wage bill and whats the point. They aren’t 10th or 15th in the league. They are in the top 6. where they belong if you believe wage is relative to position in league.
Arsenal have spent $400 Mil in the past 5 seasons. Why would he say 300 mil then?
1-1 with a team who were bottom of the table…
Happy New Year Gunners.
Fuck Mike Dean.
I’m not a violent person – quite the opposite in fact. But I currently have an overwhelming desire to cave Mike Dean’s face in with a bowling ball.
Whatever happened to that petition to have Dean removed from our games that reached a huge number?
Having said that he cost us the game we were woeful. A half decent side would have slaughtered us.
https://www.change.org/p/the-football-association-the-fa-prevent-mike-dean-from-refereeing-another-arsenal-game over 100,000 votes.
Yup. It’s 5 minutes to new year here in india and Mike Dean has put me in a bad mood. Cunt.
I wrote the comment before new year but internet didn’twork. Midnight rush. It’s now officially 2018 and I feel like I’m talking to some of you from the future.
I can confirm that Mike Dean is still a cunt.
I find the whole Megan Markle and prince Harry wedding story slightly more exciting than this Arsenal team. Penalty was a joke, a joke that we allowed to happen, we are a fucking joke.
Ps. Alexi Iwobi…and our best offensive substituion – Danny Wellbeck, oh my, oh my.
Ps2. Whats the point of playing Lacazette if noone gives a shit about passing the ball to him?
Ps3. Happy new year Guys!
I have never seen a match as boring as this in 10 years. Weird team selection and weird substitions. It was so hard watching these guys play. Iwobi is a headless chicken, not a football player. I noticed after 50th minute, Bellerin/Sanchez etc decided not to even pass it to him. And I’m sorry but Cech is so below average for a long time now. 0/14 penalty saves says it all. Compare that to City who are 10/17. He is past his best. And I cannot believe that an average player like Walcott is the kind of player I wanted… Read more »
I hate referees that have an innate need to make the headlines
Also, I know that we probably should have scored from a couple of previous chances, but now instead of saying “didn’t play well but decent win” going into the New Year, there is only going to be a constant debate because of one stupid fucking referee
That’s just completely what it was wasn’t it? He could be the big story of the last game of 2018 or whatever. Twat.
2017 I mean, but you know. Wanker.
2017, 2016, 2018?…and beyond?
Mike Dean will always be a cunt mate
happy new year guys
For Fuck Sake. What is the point when a Ref can give the other side a goal?
The point is if we were banging say 5 in against the lowest team, 1shit penalty call wouldn’t make a difference. But were not…so it does.
We play like shit, then grumble because the ref was also shit.
games like this happen. Thats why they are played. Not some computer or on paper. Still to have a a 1-0 and 3points taken away because of incompetent call is stupid. They way Dean was showing Arsenal players what he say was stupid AF. Showing how CC was stickign his arm out. WTF
Agreed caligunner, it’s just too damn many of our games are like this. Happy New Year to you on the West Coast from the East Coast.
Once again Mike Dean proved Arsenal’s nemesis as he made himself the centre of attention.
It was never a penalty all day long. Ball to hand, not the other way around.
I’m starting to think all these dropped points could cost us come the end of the season. When West Brom score an equaliser and are rushing to restart the game, you get the impression perhaps our temperament doesn’t have the highest reputation. Man, we’ve had it tough with decisions though, another crazy one today. Pfft.
Dropped points to Stoke, West Ham and now West Brom…not to mention Liverpool.
8 points pissed away.
Horrendous penalty call. Two points stolen by Mike Dean. Cech still yet to save a penalty for AFC.
If Cech could stand still and stop jumping around like a 90s keeper he would save half of the penalties.
21 points off top at this stage in the season is abject failure and Wenger should be replaced.
This is the second-best PL squad on paper in my opinion and is vastly underperforming – he gets less than the sum of the parts
I’m not sure about 2nd, but third or fourth, surely. And after Spurs make up their game in hand, we’ll likely be sixth again. Hard to argue with the clear fact that Wenger is underperforming.
Miked it all about himself, again.
Mike Dean’s a useless c**t. Just can’t believe how he can give that as a penalty. Wasn’t the best game to watch. Really missed Ozil’s creativity. Let’s hope he’s fit for Chelsea.
Yes it was dull and uncreative from us, but Mike Dean cost us this game. We need a bit of luck. I hope we beat Chelski.
Mike Tottenham Dean
Arsene Wenger has ruined Arsenal , also Mike dean is a piece of S**T.
Wenger Out. Please Santa , make it happen.
Mike Dean again. What a cunt.
Did not do enough to win it.
1) we are too slow moving the ball forward.
2) Lacazette…he had a couple of moments but he needs to hold the ball up better.
3) Passing, I can pass better than some of our players.
Of course we didn’t do enough to win the game thats why it ended up a draw.
It doesn’t matter if should have scored 100 goals on them. Games are played sometimes you have to win ugly. At least have it decided by the players and not a ref making a horrendous call.
I remember our 2017 1st game and THAT whole team move which led to Giroud scorpion kick…..
I will try to forget that 2017 last game as fast as midnight will come… Ok we were not good, ok it was boring… but to finish 2017 with 2pts stollen by one of the worst ever ref… Did we deserved that????
so long 2017… will not miss you that much.
If we played like we should, no referee would prevent us from winning these games. Of course we don’t, under Wenger we’ve become a passing to the sides/backwards team with no punch. This result is an exact reflexion of what his teams have been for the past many years. Let’s prepare for more of the same next season if he stays
Referee screw up or not, we couldn’t beat a team rock bottom of the league. We are mediocre and it’s time to start accepting it until Wenger leaves.
There’s that of course, but man city scraped through a couple of games like this, an offside decision here and there going in their favour. You need luck to go your way as well.
I sincerely hope Mike Dean looses his refereeing license this New Year. Hate that bald wanker and there would one less spud in the Premier League.
Arrggghhhh I fucking hate Mike bastard Dean!!!!
On note with match though. Bloody dreadful, struggled to put passes together and such a lack of communication. Were we playing on a matchbox today? No width whatsoever, this is where Ozil being missing shone out, he’s always shifting wide if nothing is in front of him. I dread to think what we will be like in either a month or the start of next season but yeah I’m worried.
Why the hell isn’t VAR implemented already – it would take the prick off cunts like Mike Dean!
It still would have been given even with VAR
If we have to have Iwobi in the starting team we’ll never get better. Obviously never a penalty but will he get reprimanded/ fined/lose a game or two. Never.
Of all things to pick on, Iwobi is not one. He’s debuted last year and is effectively being asked to replace Ozil. 87% pass accuracy today – I don’t see the issue.
When we can only put on Welbeck or Walcott, you have to wonder.
Regardless of whether Alexis stays or go, get Mahrez.
We lack creativity breaking teams down.
This is the bottom team and we are struggling to create chances.
Too slow and ponderous. Instead of being a coiled spring waiting to pounce, we take far too long and end up passing across the back line.
Something isn’t right.
Mahrez is a fast attacker. But Wenger does not like fast attacks. Everything shall happen slowly, against a firmly established defense, in small, genious passes.
Thank you blogs and team for everything you do here…
Happy New Year to all you arses.
May 2018 bring our team better fortune and wins.
Mike Dean is a cunt who screwed us but we should have been out of sight way before then.
Why we put Per on at 0-0 made no sense. We should have put Welbeck & Theo on and then gone 4-3-3.
On the season in general, we are told that no champions league football would help us this season, the first eleven have been nowhere near the Europa & still we are struggling for top four & are twenty points plus away from City.
All in all it’s been a very poor 2017, the FA Cup aside.
Yeah, bringing Per on, when we are 0-0 against West F*ckin Brom, clearly need attacking reinforcements, and need to not drop two points more than we need to protect the one, was a ridiculous decision.
I agree
What was the point bringing on Per knowing how the game was going. It wasn’t like we were on our heels.
We needed more then a 0-0 draw in a game like this.
SMH @ Wenger, What were you thinking
A fair result. Yes, the ref was a complete cunt when he awarded that penalty, but we didn’t deserve the win. We were pathetic, especially in the first half, and needed an own goal to take the lead. The good thing for Wenger is that he’ll be able to whine about that pen and therefore deflect all the attention away from his side’s abject performance. We were pretty much clueless. Who gives a shit about the Premier League anyway? I’m looking forward to the Caribou Cup. That’s something we can actually win. PS: why couldn’t that useless prick Milivojevic put… Read more »
I’m sorry what? Teams cannot be fluent all the time. City had a three game run where they scored the winning goal after the 80th minute, so have United. These are the games where top teams struggle yet leave with three points because of that one moment of quality that differentiates them from the rest. We had that moment tonight, only to be denied by a cunt of a referee whose last achievement was failing at being an unbiased referee. Also, Mike Dean is a prick. It’s 00:17 here in India and I’ve kicked off 2018 by abusing a referee.… Read more »
That’s a load of shite. We weren’t at our best but they kept on at it. Not a lack of effort and some days are hard- and days in the festive season are always hard.
FG’s back!
Said no one. Ever.
I really don’t like this formation and don’t think it’s suiting us offensively or defensively. The 2 inside forwards are ending up very central, which means our wing backs have no one to combine with offensively, and they end up just passing it inside or backwards with no penetration. Some of our best football historically came about with those nice combinations between fullbacks and wide attacking midfielders (e.g. Cole and Pires), and we are deprived of that with this system. I think you need really high quality wing-backs to play this system, and we don’t have them at the club.… Read more »
Never a pen but we also didn’t do enough for me against the bottom side.
It was pedestrian, predictable (let’s completely ignore the flanks again and try and pass the ball through the eye of a needle. AGAIN).
How the fuck Iwobi gets a game is beyond me and Bellerin now plays like a wing back / full back with absolutely no pace. Any prick can pick it up and constantly play a ball inside.
Not good enough. Nowhere near.
See you on the other side.
Thanks for the youtube links Pedant……As infuriating as our horseshoe football, and pulling handbrakes on seemingly fast breaks – allowing the defenders to flood back into position. Really tough to watch, now time to imbibe our gunner sorrows away. Happy New Year to all.
Wasn’t planning on getting trashed tonight but i have to eliminate this game from my mind. Shit end to a shit year. Firstly fuck Mike Dean Spud cunt. Secondly Wengers selection was poor considering we have Chelsea next…No need for Koscielny to play this match..Also missed the opportunity to play Niles in the middle and have Wilshere in Ozil’s spot. Lacazette looked waaay off, found myself cursing his name for the first time. Missed Ozil but i thought Iwobi (Who was mediocre) was the best of a bad bunch..Notice we got even worse when he came off. Im soon going… Read more »
Iwobi sucked today. He isn’t quality yet. He is a squad player right now. He had 2 shots on goal usually better then usual but still overall sucked.
AMN isn’t ready to start in the middle in the Prem unless an emergency. He still makes too many errors with his passes in our defensive half.
AGree why not rest Kos??? If he was insistent on the back 3 he should have used Holding. Why bring on Per when the game clearly showed at that point WBA wasn’t a threat going forward.
We weren’t very good, obviously missing the incisive passing of ozil. Aside from the slow sideways passing, the infuriating insistence to play down the middle again and again and the inability to beat the first man with any cross, I thought we defended well and did just about enough to win. Nobody would complain about a scrappy 1.0 win during the busy festive season. Then Mike dean came along and ruined it. Again. It seemed like he was looking to give it. He is a nasty little cheat. Nothing more.
Why doesn’t he just play for them? I mean seriously this is never given like literally never.
Why does iwobi play ?
Unlucky for the penalty, but that shouldn’t mask the fact that we were bang average today.
Don’t want to be too harsh on a young player, but I really fail to see what Iwobi brings to the team.
Our build up play is so slow most of the time.
The worst thing is the quality of football we see nowadays – it’s just so sterile and dull. Even in the banter era with Eboue, Denilson, Bendtner, we still produced some scintillating football. Now it is listless, with no coherent style, relying on individual moments of skill or luck to get us goals.
Enough about blaming the referee. Everyone here, every pundit says that wasn’t a penalty. Personally, I think it was. He put his hand in a bad spot and it clearly looks like he moves his arm to deflect it. Everyone is talking about “well he didn’t mean to do that, that he didn’t have enough time to react”. The video clearly looks like he is moving his arm to block it and if the referee sees it that way than he sees it that way. Don’t push the blame on to someone else because we weren’t good enough. I have… Read more »
“Everyone here, every pundit says that wasn’t a penalty. Personally, I think it was.”
Mike, Mike, is that you?…
The movement of Chamber’s arm was an instinctive attempt to get it out of the way. Had the ball not hit his arm, it would have hit his body. Ball to hand from 2 yards all day long and twice on Sunday… unless it’s you, or that useless prick Mike (punch the air when Spurs score) Dean.
But the ball hit is arm and not his body. Whether he was moving it to get his hand out of the way or not is irrelevant. From the replay it looks like his hand is moving towards the ball and voila the ball makes contact. Is it potentially a harsh call, yes. But I can clearly see why it was given and agree with it. We might not like it and agree with it but the call was made and we have to live with it. No amount of moaning and name calling is going to take away from… Read more »
Right… I see….you clearly have all the attributes to replace Dean when he retires…
It’s not at all irrelevant. And for someone so adamant about this, it’s quite strange you have no clue re.: the rules. And you must have been watching that replay in a mirror or upside down or something.
There’s always one.
I have looked at the replay numerous times. It looks like his arm moves towards the ball to block it. You can argue he was too close and it shouldn’t count because he had no time to react but it looks like he moves his arm to block the ball. We might not agree and you are more than entitled to your opinion but please point out where it looks like his arm isn’t moving towards the ball because I don’t see it. We might not agree or like the decision but it is what it is. I would argue… Read more »
We? Obviously you agree with the call. You actually think it is a Handball and would have called it a handball yourself.
There are some games you have to win ugly and this is teh type of game it was. Do I agree with the formation we used? No. Do I agree with the players chosen? No. Do I agree with the first sub used? No. We legit had a lead and 3 points taken away from us on a BS call.
I think that it was a penalty. Based on the movement of his arm how do you not call that? I have looked at the replay and his arm moves in the direction of the ball. We might not like it and call it a terrible call but it should have been called. The other thing to consider is why did we put ourselves in a position to let the referee decide a game for us?? We didn’t score and do enough to secure the win. Our play was sloppy and we barely troubled them in the second half. It… Read more »
I really thought Cech was going to save the penalty to get his 200th clean sheet! It’s the hope that kills you.
and what happened to the regular kit man? Who gave Stevie Wonder the job?
Mike Dean is a cunt.
That game sums up our league campaign for 2017. Even with a really poor ref, we should of still had the points. Even though they had more rest we should of still won that game. A team that’s bottom of the league for a reason should of been delt with. Even with out ozil we should still have created good chances and won that game. That kind of performance we see way to many times.
Welbeck is now worse than Walcott, and that is a miracle. I couldn’t find where he was hiding on the pitch for the first 10 min. West Brom totally took over the game, and Arsenal were lucky to get the goal. And then Mike Dean decided luck must even itself out. To be honest, 0-0 would have been a far result, but at 1-0, 1-1 feels like a loss.
theres no point blaming the ref for our poor result,its our bad luck if we are,nt good enouth to beat west brom
i see that most of you now have “Wenger’s mentality”, it’s never the teams fault :/
Mike Dean. The only ref in history to have a breakfast cereal named after him. Special Kunt.
1-1 to mike dean the bald headed wank blaster
there was plenty of side-passing, a lot of back-passing, and many wrong passes , many failed crosses, not to mention whatever the f*k that iwobi was doing , even willshare was under-performing today & so was the whole team, but according to most of you it wasn’t that what costed us the points,no way, it was mike dean, it was all mike’s fault, some of you even dared to compare this mediocrity with $ity’s today’s draw.
anyway what i wanna say is that the 1st step to solve a problem is admitting you have a problem.. sigh
I am dreaming but I hope Wenger retires at the end of this season and walk out with one year left on his contract. It just doesn’t work better anymore with him at the helm.
Chambers did the same thing at the 16 minute mark versus Crystal Palace, and since Mike Oliver didn’t call it, I have to question why Mike Dean did.
Dean was not the problem, really. Arsenal’s terrible play was. Iwobi played the ball to the opposition on several occations, completely without pressure. Bellerin was out of position defensively, Chambers was struggling too. All the players seemed to think very slowly. Everybody lacked spark. The penalty was a little harsh, but Chambers had a half-voluntarily handball in the first half too. Referees are like that: You save up for a card or a penalty. Arsenal are sixth now, and will be lucky not to slide further. Wenger could now do as Morinho did last year: Drop the premier league ambitions… Read more »