I don’t like talking about parenting. Honestly, there is nothing more boring in my new life as a dad than meeting other dads who want to talk to me about being a dad. The first 18 months of having...
I don’t like talking about parenting. Honestly, there is nothing more boring in my new life as a dad than meeting other dads who want to talk to me about being a dad. The first 18 months of having children is fighting the urge to be a real f*cking bore. I refuse to be the man who slides into grey joggers, soiled New Balance trainers with an ‘I never get to exercise’ paunch.
However, there is one area that I have fully failed at… I have accepted that I will, at all times, have food on my clothes. I can’t fight it anymore. There aren’t enough drycleaners to keep up with the Cheeto handprints and the yogurt kisses. Food mishaps are so regular, I’ve found enough time in the day to find a common enemy.
Egg yolk. Fuck egg yolk.
Yeah, I said it. I don’t mind the white of an egg, but if a child enters the room with the yolk on their hands, I’m fighting them.
So why is this Arsenal-related?
As fans, our equivalent to accepting food on your nice clothes is to be 100% clear on what is going on at PGMOL.
… they are targeting us. We cannot expect to exit games with decisions going for us. PGMOL is egg yolk and after the Arteta rant, the stain is indelible.
Jarred Gillett, an Aussie ref who has a Fox Sports article about him that indicates he had to sign away Liverpool rights because he supported them as a youth seems to be involved in a lot of Arsenal games where he makes heavy-handed decisions against us.
Remember the United penalty decision reversal earlier in the season? Jarred Gillett (VAR).
Remember the penalty decision for the handball against Bill Saliba against Chelsea? Jarred Gillett (VAR).
How about we go back to Palace 2019 when a winner was chalked off by a guy who had never reffed a Premier League game.
Rather, they are entitled to ask why an apparent winner from Sokratis Papastathopoulos seven minutes from time was disallowed after a lengthy VAR review with no explanation offered to anyone in the stadium, replays later showing a possible infraction by Calum Chambers in trying to reach Nicolas Pépé’s corner but nothing fitting a definition of “clear and obvious”.
Who was that? Jarred (VAR).
Who was the guy on VAR duty for the City game where Silva got a penalty for diving and Odegaard was denied an obvious one? You’re not gonna believe it. Jarred (VAR).
It’s hard to find accurate information, but I believe Jarred has now been involved in about 5 of our games this season. Quite a lot for a Liverpool fan who has already been part of some pretty controversial decisions. How many more games is he going to be allowed to interfere with before he’s tasked with working on games he can handle?
Outside this particular individual – it’s clear that PGMOL is struggling. Gary Lineker has withdrawn support for them, Pep G was flippant about them and lost his mind this weekend, Roy Hodgson went off at them this weekend, De Zerbi said he didn’t like them, even Ange the Great had a pop. I cannot believe that there isn’t going to be some sort of action taken against them. They are killing the game. Something needs to change.
Serial offenders need to be removed Howard Webb needs to present a 10-point plan to the fans for how he’s going to change things in the next year The Premier League and FA need to show some leadership and intervene with this organization. If it were a company, the board would sack the CEO and someone would launch a hostile takeover. Where are the powers that be here? How can the silence continue? Clubs need to be more public about their pressure campaigns that go on behind closed doors (this is 100% true btw)Mikel Arteta is being punished by the refs because he dared to speak out. We are finished when it comes to 50/50 decisions this season because the group officiating is petulant, childish, and they’ve gone on record saying they don’t always make decisions based on what is right for the game. You can’t win. Say nothing and get screwed. Say something, get nothing.
That’s our lot in life. Arsene Wenger won trophies when Alex Ferguson ran PGMOL. No reason we can’t.
Injury Issues
Mikel Arteta has two major weaknesses. One is not recognizing that his keeping coach is holding him back. A weird miss, considering the money we’ve spent on countless keepers now.
The second is his macho approach to player fitness.
Every club is struggling with injuries this year, but Arsenal are struggling with the same players they always have problems, and it’s because Arteta appears to have changed absolutely nothing.
Tomiyasu has calf issues. We’re now into season three of his, and he’s once again been overplayed and broken at an important time.
Thomas Partey breaks every year, but this year, we’ve broken him twice in training. Not good.
Ben White hamstring issues usually come in March, this year, they came in October.
Bill Saliba dropped out of our title race because of a literal stress injury. He’s a big boy, he’s still developing, his huge frame can’t take the strain… how many games has he missed this season?
Zinchenko also suffers with calf injuries, he breaks down like Tomi, how many rest days will he be getting in December?
We have 5 defenders to choose from. If Arteta doesn’t watch it, we’ll be welcoming Cedric Soares into defence, or finding out how Good Declan Rice is at centre back.
Arteta has a big test this week. Arsenal vs PSV. We have TOP OF THE GROUP privileges. We don’t have to send anyone there. Arsneal could send the U15s. Question is, does Arteta let his boys stay at home and play xBox, or does he insist on putting senior players on the plane just to show solidarity with the second stringers?
This shouldn’t even be a question… but Arteta does silly things in the name of MAN UP.
If I see Saliba step a foot near that private jet, I’ll be writing a strongly worded tweet to Arteta’s dormant Twitter account.
We need to be smarter about the fitness of our best players.
‘But you should see our win percentage’ cannot be the response to constantly breaking our best players.
PARTEY OVER
I’ve been mulling over this Thomas Partey return from injury, and I’m starting to believe we might bin him this January.
He earns huge money and is never available He likes to party. It’s well known. That weird IG story of him in the car summed him up. This guy isn’t sleeping in cryogenic chambers to prolong his career. His deal is up summer 2025. This Jan he has 18 months.This is basically the last window he has any value. Italy, Spain, and France could be viable destinations for him because they are easier leagues on the legs. I reckon his profile is big enough to get a tax free salary match in Saudi.
My gut says we might get a midfielder this January and I know for certain we’ll be going for a defender.
Thomas exiting for £30m? Not the wildest bet.
Watch. This. Space.
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