DaveAV1

I agree we didn’t use any academy players and it’s always good to blood youngsters if possible. However I think we were looking at the bigger short term picture, that a win would be good for moral. Add to the fact we were playing fellow PL strugglers and in a fixture, regardless of personnel, that is shortly to be repeated then I think winning last night’s game trumps youth development. Plus we shouldn’t use the chance to win one of the three competitions we’re in as purely a training exercise.

West Ham and Spurs had a stroll in the park too and Man U hammered Rochdale.

Why let a technical issue ruin a crap joke?

Who do, centre backs?

Lansbury has an ankle injury, nothing serious apparently.

To be fair I’d say I’ve seen them given and not given, but surely this kind of situation is what VAR was introduced for. On replays it’s pretty clearly a penalty. VAR just isn’t fit for purpose and neither are an increasing number of referees. Which for me is the root of the problem and VAR has just added another layer of incompetence.

I’m sorry but I think you’re wrong. He clearly leans towards the ball with his arm hitting it. All of the pundits on MOTD said it was as clear a penalty as you can get. They even went through the 5 reasons why it may not have been given and none of them applied. Alan Shearer and Danny Mills don’t generally give us the time of day, so for them to back us it seems to be fairly clear cut that it should have been a pen.

VAR is simply not working. Basically the ref on the pitch has, in many situations, absolved himself of the responsibility of making a difficult decision. He subconsciously, or consciously, thinks that the VAR ref, with the luxury of time and slow motion replays will make the right decision for him. Unfortunately the mindset of the VAR ref is that he doesn’t want to go against a fellow ref’s decision and in turn absolves himself also of responsibility. All they have done with VAR is add another layer of incompetence. Humans need to be taken out of the equation. The big moan that we often have with refs is that they’re not consistent, by adding another ref that adds to the inconsistency. Goal line technology is fine as that is a piece of technology that works. Refereeing by committee isn’t working and never will. Referees just need to be better, not given a get out clause.

I think Deano should have made changes earlier, but it was individual mistakes that cost us, from players that have been great for us this season. It happens. Perhaps tiredness contributed and so Deano has to take the blame there. However I don’t understand this attitude that because a team go a man down it’s a guaranteed win, particularly against sides that are currently sitting 4th and 5th. Just because Arsenal aren’t as good as they were, that doesn’t make them poor, especially going forwards. We’re just 6 games into the season and Dean Smith is just 6 games into being a PL manager. We’ve made mistakes, we’ve had to make far too many changes to the team in a single window. I think we would have signed more, but we’re mindful of making even more changes. Elmohamady still getting lots of game time I believe is a symptom of us trying to keep some existing players in the squad. We’ll learn and grow together, team, coaches, everyone at the club. Thinking that there won’t be some setbacks along the way is at least overly optimistic. What we must do is stick together, both on and off the pitch. Almost everything in life worth achieving needs to be hard fought for, football is no different. And having just watched MOTD, VAR being fit for purpose wouldn’t hurt either. Hopefully over the season it balances out, but it hasn’t done us any favours so far.

I think there are some massive over reactions on here this evening but I can understand people’s disappointment under the circumstances. But this comment for me is disgraceful.

Even BBC questioning var decision

Bournemouth are a considerably better side than Brighton. Onwards and upwards, we’re gonna take the Arse tomorrow. UTV!

I should have realised that. My thinking outside the box function was switched off!

Yes that would make sense.

El Ghazi to replace Wes? Surely not, where did you hear that?

They just didn’t play to his strengths...

Good.

Whilst I understand and indeed feel the same annoyance at the standard of refereeing particularly on Saturday, I don’t agree with changing anything once the final whistle has gone. Sure Friend should be investigated and sanctioned and the PL should be working hard to improve the standard of refereeing. But once the game is over, it’s over. We can’t have situations where we could be enjoying a post match pint having thought we’d won, only to find out that, for whatever reason, we hadn’t. Imagine we’d just won at Anfield 3-0 only to find out an hour later, that all our goals had been disallowed, 3 men sent off and Saido Mane had scored a hatrick? Dean Smith would explode! (He added trying to keep it on topic...).

Did he actually blow his whistle before Lansbury puts the ball in the net? You hear a whistle, but is that just I’m MOTD? He shouldn’t have blown up to hand out a card, simulation shouldn’t stop the game. The fact that Jack didn’t dive or appeal for a fowl just adds to the mistake. We didn’t play well and faced a team away, that during 2019 has got more points than any team other than Man City and Liverpool. However our game was effected by his inconsistent refereeing. If you read a team has had 5 booked and 1 sent off you’d imagine it’s been a blood bath which it clearly wasn’t. Whilst punishing us and not doing the same to Palace he has directly influenced the game. The farcical end was just the tip of the iceberg. Using the ref as an excuse for a loss always seems like sour grapes, but this was totally exceptional. You feel that if VAR has given us a penalty at some stage, he would have disallowed it for the taker bring offside. I’ve seen a lot of incompetent refs making laughable decisions, but generally against both sides. Yesterday it would be hard to not think that the referee was for some reason carrying out actions in a very biased fashion.

I read somewhere that only Man City and Liverpool have more points than Palace in 2019. So you’re right, we were competitive on a poor form day, when nothing went for us against a form team away from home.

That’s the point, the ref must referee, no matter how poorly, the same for both teams. He sounds like he isn’t.

Marvelous not even on the bench??

Happy Birthday. I’m going 3-0 Villa as it’s your birthday. Who would deny a Villa fan joy on his birthday!?

You’re right, he needs to move to a big club.