Resident Blogger : SimonSEEZ
Three points in the bag wrapped up nicely and sends us top of the moon, actually top of the league …..(watching MIB 3 and it’s that part where Tommy Lee Jones places the arcnet on the rocket and it’s headed toward the moon to save the earth), hence my weak reference to the moon rather than the league.
You see it’s this kind of problems you have when you sit on top of the league without a worry in the world. Actually, there are some worries especially considering we didn’t really wrap the points up that nicely. It was a tough 3 points earned at a very tough ground. On the preview for the game and on almost every preview I read, plaudits were given to this Castle side and they showed exactly why they have beaten Chelsea, Man United and Spurs in the league this season.
Ramsey’s injury made room for Wilshere to walk into the side and Ozil picking one also ensured that we had a midfield three that haven’t started a game together before. Am I the only one who felt Wenger was somewhat rescued by Ozil’s injury and didn’t have to be forced to make a decision to rest his star player for an encounter which we would really have needed someone with his ability albeit his being in the now famous red zone it seems a lot of our players are in?
It sure was a scrappy affair especially in the first half and the highest points where in the last seconds of the half when Szczesny was forced to make an excellent save to ensure we went into the dressing room all square. Our passing was awful and we struggled to impose ourselves on the game, for a left back Gibbs was getting wiped right and centre by Debuchy and Sissoko all day, if it was an audition for who would play right back for the French national team it’s fair to say Debuchy won this round. Maybe by the time they visit we can all help Sagna get one over him. Gibbs though wasn’t helped at all by the fact that Cazorla wasn’t defending at all down that side and he was only effective in the game when he moved to the middle and Rosicky to the left. Rosicky had a man of the match performance with the quality of his balls (that seemed so wrong, ‘quality of his balls’, oh well moving on), his aggression and willingness to stick himself in every situation.
Down the right we struggled with Walcott, in attack Giroud was well……..…let’s not get into Giroud again, why he refused to put in what looked like a simple pass to Walcott at some point in the second half only the heavens would know. In the end we got a goal off a set piece and with the deftest of flicks from Giroud’s hair the ball hit the back of the net. We had another chance to make it two after Walcott did well to stretch and force Krul to make a save that ended up falling for Giroud and Giroud missed what was a sitter…let’s just say now we know why he refused to stretch his right leg for the pass he got from Ozil against West Ham. In the end one goal was good enough and the fact we ended the game with 5 defenders showed how much we had to dig in to protect our slender lead.
All in all, we are going to have days like this and sometimes you have to take what you get as long as you go home with 3 points. Man City played at home against a team that on paper would seem like weaker opposition and we saw how hard they struggled to get full points from that game. Happy for Giroud, we really have all gone off on him in the last few weeks and it’s nice to see him be the difference between us going home with 3 points rather than one.
……………….EPL REFEREES
Probert was blind to all Tiote’s fouls
We have always known referees in the EPL to be slightly incompetent especially when it has to do with games that involved Manchester United but the rate at which wrong decisions are made every week in almost every game now is to use a mild adjective appalling. The FA really have to look into the quality of their match officials if they want to keep their credibility as week in week out it’s getting washed away by the men they put in charge of matches. Football is a huge investment and with the amount of money being pumped into the game in England now it’s just a matter of time before it all blows away if we keep having officials making dodgy decisions.
How did Tiote escape without any caution against us yesterday when some of his tackles were fit only for Rugby? Against Manchester City we suffered several wrong decisions and we can’t forget how awful the referee for the Aston Villa game was. Liverpool were cheated in broad daylight when they played Manchester City at the Etihad and yesterday against Chelsea how Howard Webb didn’t award a penalty for the tackle on Suarez by Eto only he can explain. Same thing happened with the Norwich vs Manchester United game where Norwich were also denied a clear penalty.
I am certain someone can point a few decisions they feel Arsenal too might have benefited from but it still doesn’t answer the question of the quality of officiating in this league. Top teams are currently separated by less than four points and the worst thing that can happen to this league especially this season is for the league to be won or lost based on what a referee gave or did not give rather than real quality on the pitch by the football teams.
That’s where I call it wrap friends. Have a great week as we close in on the final days of 2013. Don’t think we would have another post before then with all the end of year accounting I would have to do at work so i’ll just say a Happy New Year to everyone who has taken time out to read all our posts in our very first year. Thank You
Subscribe to our Posts:
[BFTWP]
Share your opinion and Interact with us on the comments section or on Twitter @canoncrested.
