Football doesn’t get much crueler than that.
I don’t normally like to prattle on about the injustices we suffer, but today it just seemed like the Premier League was out to get Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Karl Henry - unlucky to be sent off?
Let’s start with the sending off. You might disagree with this point, but I think Karl Henry was silly to lunge into a tackle he really didn’t need to make. I’m being highly critical there, but when you’re playing a top side, you’re judgment has to be spot on for the whole ninety minutes. That being said, the decision to send him off was just plain silly.
Was it a foul? Possibly. He certainly went through the man, even if he did get some of the ball.
Was it a yellow card? Well, if you give the foul, potentially you might think it was worthy of a caution.
Was it a red card offence? Not in a million years.
For me, the referee has simply reacted to the unnecessary furor created by the Arsenal players, who surrounded the man in black, screamed wildly and wagged a few fingers to ensure the situation escalated sufficiently. All the top sides do it.
I would imagine Wolves will appeal the decision, but it won’t be rescinded. I’m certain of that.
Credit to Wolves for battling on with a man less and coming within a whisker of picking up what would have been a glorious point. They deserved to hang on.
I see a lot of people are pointing the finger of blame at Keogh for that audacious attempt at a lob from the halfway line with the clock ticking down. With a hindsight (what a wonderful thing that is) it was a crazy thing to do, but it seems a bit harsh to me to condemn him personally for costing us the point. A lot happened afterward.
Why was Zubar left isolated at the back post with Bendtner. Surely one of our center backs should have been in the vicinity? Or maybe now I’m the one being over critical?
Whoever you choose to blame, the one thing we can all agree on is the pain of this cruel defeat.
Console yourself with the fact there’s always someone worse off, hey Burnley?
What the Papers Say
The hosts dominated the game but were frustrated by their own inability in front of goal and Wolves’ commitment. Even after Karl Henry’s dismissal for a lunge on Tomas Rosicky, Wolves battled hard but have nothing to show for it.
The longer Wolves held firm, the more adventurous they became and the greater the sense of frustration swirling around the Emirates.
The question on the lips of all those in Old Gold was whether Karl Henry, the captain, would have been sent off had his team been playing against any other opposition. There can appear a sensitivity about Arsenal, which is fuelled by the persecution complex of the manager Arsène Wenger and, once Henry had cut through the back of Tomas Rosicky to leave him writhing and the home fans howling in the 66th minute, there was an inevitability about the card’s colour.
Yes! The sending off was harsh. Zubar did a great job with his head in the center on manu´y occasions, really. That was the only time he failed.
Where were the real central defenders? Probably defeinding higher up. We did a better job in and around the D today I’m happy to say. Defending was really to notch – apart from the left side with Elokobi, of course.
Where Arsenal did put all their resocurses. Npthing to say about that really. I would have done the same. Elokobi or Ward – that reamains our soft spot without a doubt. I want Belhadj from Pompey!
Paddy I thought Elokobi did a fantastic job! We are talking about defending Walcott and co., who deliberately used that channel time and time again. Elokobi didnt stop all the waves, but he did either stop them or put enough pressure on so that the crosses were wayward. Better than Ward anyhow.
I’ve seen a rerun of the match and I do agree with you. But they came through too easy the first 30 minutes or so. In the second half Elokobi was very good and he got more help from Jarvis and Berra.
A yellow card became a red because of the over- reaction of the Arsenal players and the referee ‘bottled’ it.It was heartbreaking to concede so late and, as usual ,you can’t fault the character and effort of the team.(Manciene was so good i wondered if he wasn’t trying to keep us up and help Chelsea win the league at the same time!)However,can anyone tell me why Zubar stood behind Bentner (and remained there as the cross came in)instead of getting goal side.Any natural defender should instinctively do that.
Haven’t been that sick about a result for years.
Let’s face it, if we’d have got something the increasingly tiresome Wenger would have been prattling on about some injustice or other – The Guardian gets it right talking about his persecution complex.
Waggy is right when he says Mancienne was playing to help Chelsea; he had a great game.
No midfield, and Doyle looks very lonely up front on his own, but we weren’t expecting anything from this game, so maybe we can take something from the fact that it took an injury time winner when we were down to ten men for them to beat us.
You could see how much it meant to them – their subs ran on to the pitch when they scored – but I really hope they win nothing this season.
Here’s to the banks calling in the loans on their nice, soulless stadium soon, too.
Extremely unlucky not to walk away with a point.
Henry would not have been sent off had he put that challenge in against the likes of Stoke or Wigan.
Another tremendous display from the American in goal. The best keeper we have had since Mark Kendall.
Matt Murray was superb when fit
Matt Murray was far and away the best goalkeeper we had for years and years. If he’d been fit and not got injured, I think he would be England’s no.1 and they wouldn’t have these problems. Most likely be at a different club though.
What a joker that ref is, McCarthy should insist he never takes “control” of one of our games again.His sending off of Ward at Liverpool cost us the game, as did his treatment of Henry….who played the ball!!
Wenger is an arrogant tw@t , and he really needs to be taught a lesson. As for that cheating git that feigned injury to get Henry sent off, he should be remembered by every single Wolves fan on the planet and get the worst ever “treatment” when he next plays at Momlibeux
Cheating bastards, I hope Barcelona stuff them out of sight. I hope Wenger gets the worst possible case of haemorrhoids ever.
In fairness, did you see Rosicky leg ater that tackle also did you see the
“accidental” stamp on Wallcot. Tough tackling yes but not this nasty kicking of players. I think there will be more red cards as the FA finally realise that it has got out of hand
in even more fairness, Karl made an extraordinary effort to successfully avoid stamping on Walcott and his tackle on Rosicky was an attempt to nick the ball and set us away on the break as Arsenal had committed many players forward. Even more fairly than that, you will notice that ALL neutrals who have commented so far (newspapers, MOTD presenters, radio reporters etc) have come down on Henry’s side, only one eyed gunners seem to believe the tackle was worth anything more than a yellow.
Lol Bob,, all fans see things from their teams point of view, which is exactky what your doing mate, whats the difference?
Was it a red?, no, was it a foul?, yes, worthy of a yellow? yes I think so (just), but with the way officials look at tackles at the moment you will see more of those yellows turning to red, you just cannot go in from behind at that speed and expect to get away with. Ok I agree that our players may have affected the refs judgement, but if it had been the other way round it would have been your players doing it………..
As for Henry’s attempts not to stamp on walcotts leg, you have your wolves specs mate, he left his foot in and pressed down with no effort to remove his foot, that was a yellow all day long, so he would have gone anyway with the rosicky tackle………And as for Dazza from brisbane, you having a laugh mate, rosicky feign injury!!! Did you not see the stud marks right down his calf?
Look overall, your team performed well and dug in, i actually didnt want you to go down to ten men, as teams dig in even more when that happens, but we kept going and got a lucky break as we finally got one past MH who had an awesome game…Play that well in your final few games and you’ll stay up guys, which i hope you do, its always hard to take a defeat in the final few seconds and upset is a result………good luck for the remainder of the season…………..
Hi G4L_Harry, I also do think it warranted a yellow (i think the whole build up over arsenal players being tackled hard made it a red), but come on, those stud marks are mere grazes. Sure its not pretty, but the way rosicky was carrying on the ground as if his balls were ripped off is just not on. If you dont agree with me, have another look at the reaction. Thats the aspect I hate about football, and I do believe a lot of the big 4 teams have that attitude of milking everything that they can… more than the minnow teams.
And as for the arsenal players crowding round the action, fair enough. they have every right to expect the worst and be protective.
Good luck with the rest of your campaign
n1 Jub, expected to check back here and find an abusive response, I love football, I play and coach it and watch as much as I can…….I love chatting and debating, but often you find that opposition fans get abusive, dont get me wrong we have more than our fair share who dish it out and I wsih they could debate it. Right Yep I have relooked at it(about ten times now) yeah I agree he did wriggle like an eel on LSD, but he was taken out and it was a yellow, what I hate is when I see players not touch at all and they then roll about………He was touched at speed and forcefully……Most players seem to milk it these days (not saying it is right to do so)
And as i said henry probably deserved a yellow for the tackle on walcott, so he would have gone.
All that said I have an issue at the moment with officials who dont understand football, they are ruining the game for all of us………People say the bigger teams get the decisions, But to be honest we get the wrong of the stick more often than you’d think. Refs get so many decisions wrong and linesmen well they might as well not be there…….
I like what Rich says below, he took 2 looks to make a decision, the ref only gets the one look, that is something we all neglect to remember….
Clive also below thinks it is one ref for the rich and one for the poor, firstly we are not rich, we live within our means, I actually thought the time added one was about right, every game should by normal practice have about 3mins – 4mins, there was 3 subs from us, 2 or 3 from you so thats 3mins, and your keeper kept taking his time, the ref did warn him and show him his watch……and then there was a couple fo stoppages so 5mins was about right…….
As I said in my first comment, losing like that is hard to take and you look for reasons, you were unlucky and narly held on, slight drop in concentration and you pay the price……But I think you’ll stay up, you played really well, i was impressed with your play…….Good luck again…….
As I hinted before, ignore the partisans (I thought Vermaelen’s foul on Mancienne in the first half was just as bad) and look at what the neutrals say. It’s usually where the truth lies. And I’ve yet to come across a neutral in any newspaper, website, TV or radio report that thinks it was a sending off offence
What would your patronising reaction have been if we had got the point we deserved?
No one on here has slagged off the football Arsenal played, just the overacting and moaning.
No one is disputing you have the better footballing team, for now, but we don’t want your patronising, holier than thou attitudes on our blog.
Haven’t y’all got a blog of your own, or don’t enuff of you Arsenal fans know how to read to make it a viable option.
Please go away and play on someone else’s blog…………someone who gives a shit!!!
FOWB
Your manager is a complete c***!
Like Arsenal, love the way they play football, but then he has to spoil it by opening his mouth. Moan, moan, moan – didn’t see this, didn’t see that.
Rafa is the same at Liverpool too (except without the good football) – moan, moan, moan. He also has the look of a man that doesn’t give a s*ite any longer!
Heartbroken? Yes.
Against any other team and that would have been a booking at the most. Henry comes in with no intent and is unlucky to get the man, even though he gets the ball to.
The whole defence played well again. We’ve seemed to work it out at the back. It’s silly from Keogh, someone should have got to the crosser and Berra, Craddock and Zubar should have worked out who to be marking him. Walcott had a lot of the ball but not much come of it, Elokobi did well and did a lot better than I expected!
Mancienne was fantastic and Hahnemann was reliable once called upon as usual.
Only positive I get out of the result is that it might have saved me from a few beatings in school (although I have two weeks off, I;m sure they would have remembered)
If we defend like that every game we won’t lose many games, bring on Stoke.
It was Anfield 04 all over again, cruel game. I don’t think Henry’s was a sending off, but i admit it took me 2 looks to make a decision, where the ref only gets 1. The writhing around and protesting definitely played a part also.
As hard as it was to take, anything would have been a bonus and the good thing was Bolton, Hull and Burnley lost so it’s as you were with 1 game less to play.
Say what you like, Keogh lost us a point by trying to be clever with only a couple of minutes left.
And by extension, the cowardly lion MM cost us coz of his brainless substitutions….again.
Why were Jones, and Doyle taken off, we aint got another game for 8 days,
Edwards not match fit, didnt get into the game, and Keogh is Ward’s sister,….fuckin useless.
Henry unlucky, I agree with everyone that Wenger is a moaning prick and will get stuffed out of sight next week in the Nou Camp, and unfortunately Chelsea will win the title, which means that ugly arrogant bastard Drogba will be even more unbearable.
But, a thrilling stirring performance, and we drew over 90 minutes, and I suppose we should be somewhat grateful they scored when they did, the way the ref was going, we could still be playing now, just to get them the win.
One ref for the rich and one for the poor, again.
FOWB
Totally agree
McCarthy thinks he is some sort of super tactician…he isn’t! Henry would have had a yellow card if those cheating twats had not surrounded teh ref baying for blood. Cheats the lot of them.
When Keogh tried that lob, I thought the keeper must have been on his 18 yard line or something…how wrog could you be
Los next week, and we are back in the shit again.Not safe yet by a long way
Keogh, in all the games I’ve seen him, hasn’t looked fit. I saw Edwards go into a fifty-fifty which he definitely would have got and set us off on the attack but he decided not to. I think it was a case of Mick trying to be clever
Check out Karl Henry’s attack on Arsenal in the press. I never liked Henry much before this weekend, now, I think he is a God. What he says is absolutely spot on, and I hope he gets the backing of all neutral fans. I hope Arsenal get a nice reception next time they come to town. I wouldn’t mind flying back just to abuse these cheats
He’s gone up in my estimation too. I’ll be cheering on Barca tomorrow night.
Who wants to vote in the poll here? http://anotherarsenalblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/karl-henry-you-are-disgrace.html
I have.
What an absolute joke that is! How the hell can they label Henry a thug? And to say it was worse than Gallas’ tackle on Davies (who broke his leg) is scandalous! You would at least think their fans still know how the game is played even if their players don’t.
Let’s get over it, for now. We won’t change the result or the ref’s opinion, but we can exact revenge on them gooners next season, when they come to the Mol, with their namby pamby manager and bunch of fuckin’ cry babies.
We need to give them a dose of Frankie Munro, Skipper Mike Bailey and Bernard Shaw. Scythe the fuckers down before the game is 10 minutes old, and then watch them chicken out of every challenge!!!
Be worth a couple of red cards to see that, but it’ll never happen with MM the cowardly lion in charge.
FOWB
An Arsenal fan called Harry? A 40 year old Solicitor whose first game was in 2004 perhaps?Please do one.
You call that not a red card? Well it is obvious the studs were up and he went through Rosicky’s leg first before the ball and here is the proof
http://img121.imageshack.us/img121/9090/sinjury.jpg
It was a strong commited tackle and he got the ball first. Just cuz he caught the man afterwards don’t make it a red you know. It is a contact sport, but i guess you lot have forgot that. I seem to remember Patrick Vieira being particularly dirty, bet you weren’t bothered then
Pfft, most Arsenal “fans” don’t know who that is.
Henry was comitted to the slide when Prostatepricky turned to shield the ball. Henry plays the ball !! Then , how was he supposed to stop the slide? It was made worse by the prima donna ‘please-don’t-tackle-me-cos-I’m-a-tin-God’ players deliberately making sur ethat asshole choker ref gave out a red card. I tell you something, when you come to Molineux next season, you are going to get a big come uppance. Arrogant twats the lot of you.Come on Barca, stuff teh southern softies out of the CL. Hmmmm… Champions League…exactly what are Arsenal champions of… over reaction, whingeing and double standards?
I have a good mate who is a Spurs fan. I only just realised why they hate Arsenal so much, and I only just realised how justified they are.
T’om… Wolves /Stoke at 7pm with you guys,….. when was the last time you could watch us whilst having dinner
It’s 9pm kick off with us, so time to eat, pack the dishwasher and get the bourbon and coke out
Haha, I’m off the booze at the minute (surgery), but I do envy you. I really want Barcelona to win tonight, yes I’m still bitter, but I’d love to see both le Arse and ManUre knocked out of Europe, and Liverpool knocked out of Europ(a) as well. Fulham are allowed because we took points from them.