The View from Highbury

Well this is the last time we will ever visit this stadium. Hazel and I are being filmed as part of a programme being put out by ITV on Arsenals final season here before moving to their new stadium. The reason why has nothing to do with us are we are not Arsenal fans. Hazel's husband Wayne who is also blind is an Arsenal fan though and the appeal of this is too much for the TV crew to miss.

Down to the football Raffa has decided to go with warnock at left back, Kronkamp on the right of midfield and Garcia with Crouch up front.

Arsenal start off the brighter of the 2 sides and are soon in control of the game and have carved open our defence very quickly and poor old Sami id made to look very pedestrian by the pace of Henry. This is a very worrying sign the way Henry is being found with the ball by Fabregas who seems to have acres of space in midfield. We are carved open again and again and this is the first time this season I have seen a team really get on top of us. We create the odd chance or two but these are wasted. Then the inevitable happens Fabregas who really has far too much space and time on the ball finds an unmarked Henry who has as he so often does drifted wide on the left only to cut in and bend his trademark shot into the far right of our goal. Reina has no chance to save it. I am thinking to myself that the amount of times we have all seen him score this goal surely we should be able to defend it by now. I think I am probably underestimating his class though. Half time comes and I am relieved we are only one down.

All the fans are talking about the same thing Raffa has to make changes second half or we will get thrashed. Raffa does make a change he takes of the innefectual Kronkamp and puts on Kewell. This allows Garcia to move from left wing where he has looked very unconfortable to a more supportive role to Crouch who is having a very poor match. Senderos isn't even bothering to jump with Crouch for the high balls he just stands there and picks up the loose ball after Crouch has jumped. We do increase the tempo and are now looking more effective and are putting the Aresenal under some real pressure. They are starting to look shaky at the back and after a great stike from Stevei G is parried by Lehman Garcia is following up and heads into the net. The goal is deserved and we continue pressing and llok very capable of getting the second which would be a complete turn around from the first half. Then disaster strikes, Alonso who slips as he is going in for a ball that he was not going to get slides on the wet surface and collides with the Arsenal defender. Both of them shake hands as they know it was accidental and get up and to continue play. The referee Steve Bennet who has sent off more players then any other ref this season and who was looking in the opposite direction at the time of the foul (I can vouch for this as it all took place right in front of my line of view.) then without having seen the incident nor having bothered to consult his assistant gives Xabi a second yellow card and send him off. This has got to be the worst refereeing decision I have seen all season.

After this it is damage limitation for us and we are trying to hold onto a point when disaster strikes a second time. Stevei G being the last defender and under no pressure decides to waste soem time by playing the ball back to Reina. The only problem is he fails to notice that Henry is standing on the dege of the box and easily intercepts the ball before rounding Reina and scoring. And that is how it stayed 2-1

Conclusions.

We were robbed by a very poor referee.

Having sadi that Raffa's first half team selection and the positions he asked them to play did not help us. We need to pick ourselves up and re-instill the discipline of our perforemances when we went 10 games without conceding. If not our season is in danger of disintegrating. The alarm bells are ringing. Raffa needs to act now.

I just thought I would mention that after the match as Hazel and I are walking away from the stadium. Her telephone is ringing, she says it is her husband Wayne but she refuses to answer it. Neither of us particulary want to talk to him.

well george,i am not agree with you on the alonso red card point.
yes it was a late tackle,yes it was unintended.
but it was a late tackle.
so he deserved a second yellowcard,in my point of view.

nice write-up shankley gates, like you i yhink we deserved at least a point from this game and i could see the goal coming late on, then we were on the up and looked like the only team who would get another goal.

robbed is a nice word for being **** ** *** **** by the ref and henry.

the strickers owe us big time and rafa is the man to sort it out, starting with fulham on wednesday night.

comme on you reds

ynwa

ant

I'm not sure we deserved a point, but certainly should have win against Charlton and Benfica.
For Alonso, if he don't sweep, there's no foul. Simple as that. Arsh decision.
Had we have one player like Henry this week, we could have win three match...

if we had someone like henry we wouldnt be making this thread !!!

ant

Autumn I think you are missing my point here or perhaps I did not make it clearly enough, in fact I am making 2 points.

The first is that Alonso slipped and lost his footing, the surface was slippery and he inavoidably slid into Flamini. There was neither intent nor malice in the what happened and referees have to take into account playing conditions. This was just an accident that neither player made anything of as they both understood what had happened.

The second is that the referee did not fully see what happened, he was looking behind him not in the direction of the incident. By the time he turned round he only saw the collision not the slip or the slide. I stand by my comments this was the worst refereeing decision I have seen this season.

To make matters worse as it was a second yellow we have no right of appeal. This same referee had a second yellow withdrawn earlier in the season after admitting he got it wrong when seeing it on video after the match. The FA in their wisdom have said if it happens again they will only allow a red to be rescinded if it is a case of mistaken identity. So we have to suffer as a club because of blatantly poor refreeing.

I hope you at least agree Autumn that this sending off did change the game from that point on?

Shankly Gates wrote:

I hope you at least agree Autumn that this sending off did change the game from that point on?

i do.
alonso is a key player in our tactique.

i 've read your post,george.i don't like benett,he's a terrible referee.
but the fact is alonso has been goofy on this two 2 tackles,and he paid the price for that.
and it's not the first time.
remember the way gudjohnsen acted last year at stamford bridge in the semi finals.

I dont see Xabi as being an over agressive player nor a bad tackler.
He was very unfortunate IMO to have been sent off in this match accidents do happen and that is all it was he lost his footing which I am sure if the REF HAD SEEN IT HE WOULD NOT HAVE SENT HIM OFF. The fact that he didn't see it and didn't even bother to consult his assistant just pulled out a yellow is why it is the worst decision I have seen this season.