I don’t really feel like I can start anywhere else today than when the third – and essentially the last penalty of the night – was given/not given. I don’t understand. I’m really glad that Mikel Arteta said he was upset about the decision because what I saw last was a massive moment in a really important game, decided by the impact that a home crowd and a home coach can have.
I am convinced of it.
Diego Simeone waved his arms like a madman. He attacked the referee. He barked and hollered, and so did the crowd. And the referee from last night was just playing in front of this gallery.
Let’s look at the facts here, boys and girls:
- Eze gets to the ball first
- There is contact from the Atlético Madrid defender
- It’s in the box
It. Is. A. Punishment. Well, what you could argue that contact was actually minimal. And if that’s why the referee doesn’t give it, I’d say things like, “Tight call, but it’s not a bar to a penalty.” And then you make the decision on the field. But if the referee gives the penalty there is ZERO chance of it not being given. Zipper. Nothing. Nada. Nothing. Under no circumstances should this have been referred to again in this way.
And yet here we are. Simeone is an idiot. Afterwards, he allegedly (I can’t find the exact quote but some journalists mention it on social media) ridiculously tried to claim that Gyokeres’ penalty should not have been applied because he fought back against the Atletico player. Completely sidetracked because his team had fallen behind in the second half and I thought we played really well and got a lead at the break. Their home fans were loud and vocal during the opening arguments. Atleti started well and took advantage of that, but once we rallied and started getting the ball I think we looked composed and in control. It was clear that Atlético Madrid would show us respect; This is a swashbuckling Spanish team that scores a lot of goals but remains strong and compact in form, and at times in this game I saw the home team’s back five. That’s a compliment to our performance in possession and I thought the back four in particular were good.
Arteta changed it a little bit and I think it’s a blueprint that we need to think about moving forward because Rice played the deeper of the two midfielders, with Zubi right in front of him, and that also allowed us to switch to a back three at times and give ourselves more passing lanes. The manager did well and although we still had the dreaded top three, we had a few chances. I still think Martinelli and Trossard didn’t offer enough on the left when he came on, but Madueke was better.
And that also applies to Gyokeres, who scored his 19th goal of the season, and never in my life have I been more convinced that a player would take a penalty than the great Swede. We all have our problems with Gyokeres; He’s been frustrating at times this season, but when it comes to finishing and taking penalties, the ball stays hit and you know we’re going to score.
That’s why Eze’s penalty is such a disgrace because Gyokeres would have definitely put it away to win us the game and then you’re talking about taking a one-goal lead back into your own territory. We were robbed of that and that’s a real shame because even though Atlético were better in the second half, there were still a lot of positives to take from the way Arsenal handled the game overall.
As for Ben White’s penalty, I think in hindsight Arteta also handled it perfectly and admitted that it’s not given in the Premier League, but in Europe, so we have to deal with it. Atletico also had other chances. Raya made a few good saves, Griezmann hit the crossbar and the big Gabi parried the Frenchman with a huge block. We took advantage of our luck with the points, but there is no doubt in my mind that at the final whistle the luck was more with the home team than with us.
Where are we now? How do I feel this morning?
Actually pretty good, to be honest. We played on difficult ground, with a partisan home crowd and a barking manager, and came away with a draw in the end. We can all be upset about the ending, but before a ball was kicked I would have taken an away draw to turn our home game into a knockout. Away goals mean nothing anymore, so this game next week is practically one where everything will be decided that night. And the home advantage must give you more confidence.
I also think Arteta has some ammunition now. We have minutes in Saka’s legs, Calafiori is available, Eze also came on the pitch so he should be fine on Saturday, Rice and Zubi had great games. The only question concerns Odegaard, who was substituted and I read that he was treated on the sidelines. We just have to hope it’s nothing major and he has a day or two off and is ready for the game against the Cottagers on Saturday night because we need everyone now.
Arteta can exploit this injustice in the Atletico game, but he can also use the performance for Saturday. The team can take confidence from the game and considering Saturday’s game is an evening kick-off and hopefully the weather is as good as last weekend, the home fans may be a little more exuberant than we would have been had we lost last night.
We didn’t lose. We played pretty well. There is a level of confidence that can now be rebuilt. And so on until Saturday, when another big game looms and Arsenal simply MUST win.
We’ll be back tomorrow as we begin preparations. See you then.
PakarPBN
A Private Blog Network (PBN) is a collection of websites that are controlled by a single individual or organization and used primarily to build backlinks to a “money site” in order to influence its ranking in search engines such as Google. The core idea behind a PBN is based on the importance of backlinks in Google’s ranking algorithm. Since Google views backlinks as signals of authority and trust, some website owners attempt to artificially create these signals through a controlled network of sites.
In a typical PBN setup, the owner acquires expired or aged domains that already have existing authority, backlinks, and history. These domains are rebuilt with new content and hosted separately, often using different IP addresses, hosting providers, themes, and ownership details to make them appear unrelated. Within the content published on these sites, links are strategically placed that point to the main website the owner wants to rank higher. By doing this, the owner attempts to pass link equity (also known as “link juice”) from the PBN sites to the target website.
The purpose of a PBN is to give the impression that the target website is naturally earning links from multiple independent sources. If done effectively, this can temporarily improve keyword rankings, increase organic visibility, and drive more traffic from search results.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.