- Some sympathy
Arsene Wenger is really very cross about being charged with misconduct by UEFA as a result of what he said the Swiss referee Massimo Busacca after Arsenal’s defeat at Barcelona on Tuesday evening.
The decision to send off Robin van Persie was a disgrace. It defied common sense. It was a perfect example of where players and managers say that referees just don’t understand the game. They know the rules inside out but they don’t understand what it is like to play. Nobody thought that van Persie should have booked for taking a shot shortly after the whistle had blown for offside and any sensible referee, who believed he was wasting time, would have had a word with him and nothing more.
Because of that, I can fully understand why Arsene Wenger was angry and upset by the decision. I can understand why he might have spoken out of turn to the referee after the game. After all, this is his livelihood and it might, just might, have had an effect on his whole future.
Understand
So, on the whole, I understand why Wenger said what he did yesterday,
“It would be good for UEFA to show humility, to apologise, not charge people who have done nothing wrong. I deny completely any charge.
“We are out of the Champions League, we have lost one of our big ambitions, we have been punished with a lot of damages and on top of that, we have to say sorry to UEFA.
“When you have a football game of that stature, you cannot come out with decisions like that and show a lot of arrogance on top of that.
“We can all understand that we can make wrong decisions, but after that it becomes dictatorship. Its not any more common sense.
“It is a shame for me that the referee took the decision to send Robin van Persie off. It was the wrong decision.
“The first leg was a fantastic advert for football and the second game has been destroyed. People now will only remember the sending off.”
Agree
Most of what Wenger says I completely agree with. However, there are some parts where I begin to lose my sympathy. Wenger has completely blamed the defeat on the sending off. It is almost as though he hadn’t noticed that his team were totally out classed throughout the game, even when they had eleven men. They became the first team out of nearly one thousand in Champions League history to go a whole game without mustering one attempt on goal. For fifty-six minutes, that was with eleven men.
I know some Arsenal fans have said that Arsenal had a game plan that involved defending for an hour and then coming back into the game and this was ruined by the sending off. I don’t buy that for one minute. Nobody has a game plan that says let the other team have the ball all the time, don’t keep the ball, don’t shoot and let your keeper keep you in the game.
Better
The fact is that the sending off certainly didn’t help Arsenal but the reason they lost was because Barcelona were a vastly better team. It is as simple as that. Wenger has said that many Champions League games are settled in the last five minutes. That may be true but it is rare for that to happen when one team have been so comprehensively out played.
So I sympathise with the anger about the sending off, but I can’t sympathise with the view that it changed the game.
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I do not necessary agree with you, that football is all about possession Inter made it by defending what happened at Emirates is we let Barcelona run themselves out and we came into the game and i am 100% sure that is what Wenger was looking at even at 3-1 we needed only one goal to go through defending is an art so is possession. Muirinho did it with inter.
u must be a very foolish person are u a suit sayer to no what would have happened with van persie on the pitch? Let me tell u smt when it was 1-1 the barca players were not comfortable and i believe the baised ref to.if it was persie that had nb last chance of the game do u no what would be the outcome? Pls be more flexible
The fact of the matter is, up to the point when van Persie was sent off, Arsenal had only allowed Barcelona 3 efforts. One was a bad miss by Pedro, another Alves’ free kick, and the last was Messi’s goal. 3 efforts, in comparison to the 13 the Catalans finished the game with. Furthermore, before van Persie was sent off, Arsenal were winning the tie. The total domination of Barca only became effective once Arsenal’s manpower was reduced. Look at Inter’s performance last year at the Nou Camp. They defended very strongly, and actually only looked like they might lose… Read more »
I agree with you AJ we lost the two legs 4-3 and fro 40 minutes we were with 10 people vs 13 of Barca ie ref 95,000 crowd and this period we managed to concede only two goals and one was a penalty i am sure RVP could have taken a better use of that chance that NB had. All these shenanigans that Arsenal were outplayed does not necessary mean that picture this arsenal were outplayed 4-3 by Barcelona because that is what it was.
You are very wrong to say no team comes out with a game plan of defending for a period then come out at the later part of the game when the other team is getting tired to get something out of the game. So many times, teams have adopted that tactics against us in the premiership. It happened in the first leg when Barcelona dominated for most parts and we came out stronger in the second half to find more space and won the game. The same thing was going to play out before Van Persie was sent off and… Read more »
I can’t believe arsenal fans are still saying the red changed the game, it didn’t. And don’t give me the ‘defensive masterclass’ argument, because your no Inter, your a poor mans Barcelona, proved by this game.
Barcelona were the better team and deserved to go through. Now stop whining about ‘the injustice’, because we all have every sympathy about the red card, but I’m quickly loosing that sympathy because all the Arsenal fans seem to see is the referees inadequacies, and avoid talking about their own.
Even if they were the better team….it is not a law that the better always win when the opposition have their own game plan (Inter Milan). We were doing just fine before the sending off despite Barca’s dominance…the tie was 1-1 ffs. The same thing that happened in the first leg was going to play out again before the sending off. It changed the game ….like it or not.
Barcelona looked like they were going to win even before the red card. Raph, I don’t know what game you were watching but in tough La Liga games where Barca only manage four shots on target a game, they can still win by two. The card didn’t ruin the Gunners chances of winning.
In my opinion…losing a player during a game always changes the game…how could it not? You go in with 11, and you lose one, so now you have 1 less than the other team…of course it changes the game – how could it not? I don’t trust RVP – after he claimed innocence on his slide tackle on Adebayor, I thought he was a punk for trying to take Ade out and then acting all surprised that Ade kicked back…you got what you deserved for that RVP. Personally, in the Barca game, I think he heard the whistle and still… Read more »
Well 50% I blame the ref & 50% I blame Bendtner.You haven’t talked about him at all.If RVP was in place of Bendtner then the chance for arsenal to go 3 -2 at the 88th minute,it would’ve either been a goal or a penalty because if Bendtner didn’t bring the ball to his left(weaker) foot then it would’ve been a penalty because Mascherano was coming in with a sliding tackle.it would’ve been 4 – 4 on aggregate with Arsenal with 2 away goals & Barca with 1 goal,So arsenal would’ve progressed.But Barca were superb on the night no doubt about… Read more »