Saturday 13 April 2013

Lucky Arsenal? Not at all


It looked like being another Blackburn, although we did not deserve to go behind, the domination in the first half had not been converted into clear cut chances and goals, albeit we did have two decent half chances which were narrowly missed by Giroud and Gervinho.  Norwich were pretty well organised on the whole and then took the lead completely against the run of play mid way through the second half and this sparked the game into life.

Norwich should never have had a free kick, their player tripped himself up and it was an extremely dangerous position for the dead ball, right on the right hand corner of the penalty box.  Credit is also due for the excellent delivery and header, some may blame Vermaelen, truth be told it was a brilliant set piece that is extremely tricky to do much about.  Norwich then proceeded to do some of the most tedious and pathetic time wasting, every goal kick, every free kick, every single throw in was taken as slowly as possible, it really was anti-sportsmanlike.

Then the so called 'controversy' - Giroud had his shirt hauled half off his back in the box, replays show this convincingly, it may not have been a great position for him to do much given where the ball was, but it was utterly stupid of Kamara to commit such a blatant foul.  The linesman on the far touch line called it from a distance and fair play to him, it was a spot on call.  The behaviour of the Norwich team was pathetic and symptomatic of the complete lack of respect shown to officials in the modern game.  Clearly they felt vulnerable and they would have done better to get on with the game, instead their anger and aggression worked against them, it gave our players more belief.  Norwich had chosen to destroy themselves by lamely trying to blame their own stupidity on the referee.

Norwich then crumbled.  The introduction of Podolski, Ox and Theo had certainly introduced some more pace and directness, and it was the Ox's excellent burst and 1-2 that saw Giroud tap home, credit to the Frenchman for being in the right place to take advantage though.  Podolski's excellent 20 yard blaster made the game safe.  It was a cracking show of character from the team and a really important win, we now move ahead of Tottenham and Chelsea with only a handful of games remaining.

The grapes are certainly sour in Norwich and the context of their spineless whining is very very amusing indeed.  Firstly their goal came from a free kick that should never have been.  Secondly Theo had a very good case for a penalty just after he had come on.  Thirdly replays show that our penalty was undeniable, Giroud's shirt was hauled half off his back.  Fourthly Norwich bottled it mentally, their childish dissent was like surrendering, they should have taken the decision like men and got on with the game, rather than aggressively trying to blame the referee for a good decision.  Fifthly their time wasting was poor.  I am sure that certain anti-Arsenal sections of the media will unfairly try to make Norwich appear unlucky, objective context shows this not to be the case, Norwich got exactly what they deserved from this game, and that is zero points.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

What do you honestly expect from NCFC in that situation? Of course we're going to waste time if we can. We have to grind out every precious point we can in this league. We pay our players a fraction of what yours earn so yes, you are a better side with more quality but that doesn't give you the divine right to beat us.
I think you will find the main beef from a Norwich perspective is the award of the corner in the first instance. Interesting that you fail to mention this. In addition, I think it's plain to see that Giroud has also got a nice hold on Kamara's shirt at the same time. I can see why it was given but ask yourself what your reaction would have been if Norwich were awarded such a soft penalty at the other end. I doubt you would be impressed and I doubt yours players would have been either. Also no mention of the offside for your final goal.
This sort of reporting is what gives fans of "bigger clubs" their reputation.

GUNNERS RISE said...

hahaha this made me laugh thanks loool we can cheat because we're shit and cant compete with arsenal fairly lmao. teams like norwich and stoke dont deserve to be in the prem and you deserve every decision made against you.

Unknown said...

Well that's your opinion I guess; you show a total lack of respect for other clubs.
Teams like Arsenal don't deserve such arrogant, narrow-minded fans in my eyes.
I'm not sure how we exactly we "cheated"? Perhaps you care to elaborate? I don't class committed tackling, defending and time-wasting to be cheating. Looking at the latter, I'm not a fan of it but all teams do it, Arsenal included.

Unknown said...

Really unbiased piece this, really surprises me it's written by an Arsenal fan actually

Smif said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
1979gooner said...

Ho Ho Ho!

Thanks for the massive laughs Norwich fans!

So according to you, cheating is justifiable for the lesser side, pulling someone's shirt off in the penalty box is not a foul, and aggressively surrounding the officials is fine!

I have shown no lack of respect, in fact the lack of respect has all been from Norwich players with their aggressive dissent and ignorant post match moaning.

Do keep the bitter moaning coming, it is amusing that you all fail to talk about the actual incidents which went for you in terms of refereeing decisions, like the clear penalty on Walcott, rose tinted specs as well as justifying cheating, Ho Ho Ho!

Unknown said...

1979gooner, let me address your points briefly.

1) I am not intending to make you laugh. I am presenting my view of the game as a Norwich fan. We will disagree on incidents but at least discuss them without being so condescending.

2) All I will say with regards to the "cheating" is put the shoe on the other foot. I know it's hard because such a soft penalty would NEVER be awarded to a team such as Norwich at the Emirates. It just doesn't happen.

3) Players of all teams surround the referee when they feel hard done by. Arsenal do it too. I'm not justifying it but until the authorities clamp down (and the refs stop making such poor decisions!) then it will persist.

4) The freekick for our goal certainly went in our favour. In real time I thought it was a foul, honestly I did. But the replays show it wasn't. I find it frustrating how you call it a "clear penalty on Walcott". It may have been a soft penalty but it wasn't clear. Not even close to clear. You would've been livid if Norwich had been awarded a penalty in such fashion.

Yes I have a rose tinted view but I'm trying to be as objective as possible. Cheers.

1979gooner said...

cheers Manesh, fair comments

on the 'soft' decision - they are frequently awarded against us if you look at our record on getting soft red cards and penalties

the goal you scored was from a 'soft' free kick too! and soft is being generous!

on the surrounding of officials, I agree that the authorities need to clamp down and that dissent is now utterly out of control

some teams are worse than others though, but overall I agree it is the authorities that need to properly take on dissent

torontogooner said...

To be honest, that's the breaks of the game. The refs try their best (some more than others) but they won't get every call right. Arsenal had the walcott penalty non-call, the free kick decision that led to the goal against them and Norwich had the corner and the shirt pull by kamara go against them. It's the law of averages people, everything evens out. It's not fair but the game and we just have to get on. I personally like norwich and their manager but i'm glad my arsenal got he win today and to be fair, i thought it was deserved on the overall play of the game.

Uncle Mike said...

Last season, under Paul Lambert, Norwich played nice football -- in more ways than one -- and were widely lauded for it, including by many Gooners.

This season, under Chris Hughton, their character has changed completely. His players played the game as if they'd been ordered to hate Arsenal with all their might. I guess you can take the bastard out of Tottenham, but you can't take the Tottenham out of the bastard.

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Admin said...

Arsenal is a formidable club, the players, have a pretty good skills, arsenal is my pride club. Long live constantly arsenal.

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