Aston Villa v Arsenal Post Match Thread

[Monty]

Cash buttoned up their left. Excellent when he came on and made Trossard (IIRC) cry.

There were some ludicrous posh New York trust fund prick lads in the pub yesterday who were Arsenal 'fans'. They were whining that Cash should've been sent off for that. When the goal was ruled out they looked so sad, I was cackling.

[AGRIPPA]

Still trying to get my head round the fact that there were only two different players in the starting eleven that weren’t here under Gerrard…..his stock must be at an all time low

[PeterWithesShin]

Still trying to get my head round the fact that there were only two different players in the starting eleven that weren’t here under Gerrard…..his stock must be at an all time low

It's not Stevie's fault, we don't have players good enough to be in the top 10...

[AV84]

Jesus but they're an unhinged group of fans.

The narrative seems to be that they outplayed us and created a million chances compared to our 1, and yet they're also having emotional and mental breakdowns about that 1 goal being disallowed as if it was the defining moment of the game.

I mentioned it already but the fact Man City fans seem to be a better sort then the Arsenal fans is a surprise to me. You could understand them being entitled overdramatic little whinge bags given how much they have won lately, but Arsenal are the biggest bunch of alsorans of the last decade.

[Ads]

It looked like handball in real time. It definitely hit Havertz arm first. I couldn't believe how much time was wasted over it. I absolutely love that salty little lego haired ****** spaffing tears everywhere over it, the petulant little prick. "Daddy, daddy, daddy, the rules are being applied to us and its not fair". Fuck off Arteta.

[Monty]

It's not something I'm used to saying, but look at how much more dignity the Spurs manager has. The contrast between Ange and Arteta is in HD.

[danno]

I was on the bus back and a bloke was reading out Arteta’s post match comments for us to laugh at. I sat there thinking “what penalty shout?” Then when I saw it later on motd I couldn’t believe Ian Wright with a straight face saying he thought it was a penalty.

That would have been softer than the marshmallow man’s bed pillows.

[VillaTim]

i'm finding myself glancing at the table every 20 mins or so. They should hang it in the Louvre

[dave.woodhall]

In days of yore Arsenal were the classic 50,000 one game, 20,000 the next club, even when they were successful under George Graham. Then two things became fashionable - football and North London. Throw in Arsene Wenger and you have a stadium full of hipster twats with no conception of real football, the emotions and injustices, of success and failure because they've never experienced any of it.

[AV84]

I think the online element of any fandom (sport or otherwise) exhibits the worst of behaviour and reactionary attitudes. What's disconcerting to see is that kind of behaviour spilling over into the managers and players. It just validates the worst of the fans and their opinions and encourages them to get even worse.

I'll admit these past 2 games I've gone looking for reactions where I don't usually care about anything other than the result. But with the Arsenal one I haven't had to look very hard because it's coming from the club itself. It's a really bad look, I think, but one they seem happy to encourage.

[dave shelley]

My take on the Havertz incident FWIW.  The ball struck his hand/arm and the referee was perfectly placed, knew the current interpretation of the handball law and applied it to perfection and I would guess blew his whistle immediately, those fans close to it may confirm if I'm right about that or not.  Anything else that ensued belongs in the realms of pinball wizardry and is irrelevant.

[AV84]

My take on the Havertz incident FWIW.  The ball struck his hand/arm and the referee was perfectly placed, knew the current interpretation of the handball law and applied it to perfection and I would guess blew his whistle immediately, those fans close to it may confirm if I'm right about that or not.  Anything else that ensued belongs in the realms of pinball wizardry and is irrelevant.

It looked like most of the players, us and them, had little or no reaction when the ball went in the net, so it did seem like they knew something had happened.

[jon collett]

Why did the ref appear to speak to both captains before restarting play?

Was he explaining the law?

I see Lineker has now apologised he got it wrong!

[Pat Mustard]

It looked like handball in real time. It definitely hit Havertz arm first. I couldn't believe how much time was wasted over it. I absolutely love that salty little lego haired ****** spaffing tears everywhere over it, the petulant little prick. "Daddy, daddy, daddy, the rules are being applied to us and its not fair". Fuck off Arteta.

Shouldn’t even have gone to VAR. This was the perfect example of how watching the 2D screen image does not match the view the referee has - from our seat in the Lower Holte it clearly hit Havertz arm at least twice, so it was never going to be a goal. The big worry was that someone sat 100 miles away would try to find any excuse possible to award a penalty, but thankfully this time there was nothing there.

[PeterWithesShin]

I do think it's a weird rule that if an attacker accidently handles the ball when scoring the goal is automatically ruled out, but if the defender accidently handles then there's no penalty. And that is in general rather than to do with yesterday.