Whinging Arsenal winger or genuine gripes?
by stresster on April 11th, 2008
| 300 words |
Since Arsenal lost to Liverpool on Tuesday night, there have been plenty of post-mortems being carried out by various members of the Gunners squad. Kolo Toure and Arsene Wenger both bemoaned the penalty decision which led to the home team’s third goal, while Gael Clichy thought the team had to take a hard look at itself for not holding on at 2-2 on the night.
Now Sky Sports report that ice cream-loving Alexander Hleb has bemoaned a number of refereeing decisions in recent weeks which has cost his team dear. Has the winger swapped his tutti frutti cornetto with some sour grapes or do the following comments make sense?
“The Premier League is a very tough competition. Yes, the game is fast and beautiful, but there are also quite a lot of bad tackles and crudeness, and recently also monstrous refereeing mistakes.
“Chelsea scored a goal against us from an obvious offside position but the referee allowed it. And we scored a goal which was very important for us but it was disallowed for a non-existent offside.”
“There are quite a lot of bone-breaking players here,” Hleb continued. “English referees are very liberal to them. They do it because they know there will be no real punishment.
“Eduardo is out for a year, maybe more. His future is under a question mark. The guy who did it was only disqualified for three games. Is it an adequate punishment?”
We’ve certainly been here before with regard to the latter comments, with Arsenal generally starting to feel as though Eduardo’s horrific injury marked the beginning of the end of their season. Hleb is misguided to think that officials decision have played a key role in Arsenal’s potless season, although you can understand the frustration that the Gunners must be feeling right now.
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Tagged Under: alexander hleb, Arsenal FC, arsene wenger, Chelsea FC, gael clichy, Kolo Toure, Liverpool FC, ryan babel
Man U bill - April 11th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
To be fair to old Arsene the decisions against Arsenal have been a bit of a disgrace.
arsenaltimes.com - April 11th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
“Hleb is misguided to think that officials decision have played a key role in Arsenal’s potless season”
1. The penalty at Brum was never a foul from Clichy who clearly got the ball
2. A Brum defender clearly pulled Adebayor’s shirt in the 18 yard area
2. The offside goal for Adebayor which was never a offside because Boateng clearly touched the ball and the ref was only 5 yards away to see the incident
3. Anelka and Drogba clearly offisde for Drogba’s 2nd goal
4. Hleb penalty decision in the 1st leg
5. Cesc penalty decision in the EPL game at the Emirates
6. Torres’ goal resulted from a freekick from Liverpool’s own half. Liverpool got that freekick because the linesman wrongfully raised the flag for offside on adebayor when it was clear that lpool’s LB played him onside
7. babel’s penalty decision
8. Hleb’s penalty decision in the 2nd leg at San siro
all of that happened in the last 1 and half months!!!!!!!
Eddy - April 11th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
“Hleb is misguided if he thinks that refereeing decisions…”,what?
So England fans were misguided when they thought Maradona’s handball effected the result…
Birmingham away ..incorrect penalty decision as Clichy got the ball.
Chelsea away,Anelka was clearly offside for Chelsea’s first.
Liverpool at home,referee turned down a very good Arsenal penalty shout for a foul on Hleb.
Liverpool away Babel was fouled but outside the box by Cesc as Kolo didn’t foul him.
Refereeing decisions effect every game,just ask Manchester United fans who are subject to some pretty poor decisions at home in Europe occasionally,Paul Schole’s being given offside when he clearly wasn’t against Porto allowed the weaker team to go through.(Funny how these decisions only happen in Europe against Manchester United,is it because the European refs don’t fear for their job title if they happen to annoy Old whiskey nose as the English refs appear to ie I wonder if the guy who refereed the Portsmouth F.A Cup tie will appear at Old Trafford too many times again?)
So to sum up refs do effect the outcome and it is you my niave friend who is misguided.
gerry thompson - April 11th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
The penalty against Birmingham was a bad decision.Clichy clearly touched the ball first.The disallowed goal against Middlesboro was a bad decision, made worse by the referee’s explaInation. The ‘Boro goal was debatable as Aliadaire moved towards the ball initally from an offside position.True the actual Arsenal goal in that game shouldnt have been allowed either. The Drogba goal against Chelsea was clearly illegal as Drogba first touched the ball from an offside position.
The two penalty decisions against Liverpool at the Emirates were awful calls by the refs. Hleb in Europe and Fabregas in the Premier League were both clearly fouled, add in Carragher’s bear-hug of Fabregas earlier in the season at Anfield and again a decision against Arsenal. Then the one that beats the rest. The Liverpool penalty on Tuesday. It was a truly terrible decision , having watched it numerous times from numerous angles I am more convinced each time how wrong the ref got it. So Arsenal’s season has imploded, yeah the fluency and confidence may be gone ,but the decisions against Arsenal in the last six weeks or so have been unbelieveable.
rich - April 11th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
terrible decisions against the arsenal has cost us our victorys again,you can go back to rooney throwing himself in the box to win that penalty that cost arsenal the 50th game unbeaten,and started this downward spiral…also going back to what eddy said about scholes disallowed goal for offside,that fact is that jose mourinho was given the job at chelsea on the strength of winning that champions league,where would chelsea be now if he hadnt come in the first place,arsenal would have certainly won the league in 2005
josh - April 11th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
anyone fancy adding up where we’d be if we hadn’t got those decisions against us?
whos got lotsa spare time 
JC - April 11th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Fairplay to Man u bill, if a Man utd supporter agrees Arsenal have been robbed then who are you to say there is no substance in our claims!
James - April 11th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Decisions have gone against us, no doubt. But I believe in putting your house in order first and blaming referees second.
Against Liverpool, was it the referee’s fault that Arsenal fielded a donkey called Senderos who gifted Liverpool two goals? No, it was Arsene Wenger’s fault for picking a player who has never been anything other than a liability for 5 years! This is ridiculous management. What on earth is this guy still doing at the club? Show me another top club in Europe worth it’s salt that would field Phillipe Senderos.
Had Arsenal not fluffed up easy chances (Adebayor) and been defending like clowns for the last two months, maybe I could put it all down to refereeing decisions. But my anger is targeted at the defence first and referees second. If Arsenal did not have panicking clowns at the back and a world class keeper, there would be no necessity to talk about referees.
CraqueBrito - April 11th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
God, what a bunch of cry-babies, get over it, will you…
“The foul that got liverpool the throw-in that led to the offside that ended up as a corner and then hyppia’s goal was never.”
Is Arsene whining because of Arsenal whining fans or is it the other way around? Or does anyone really care? I mean, Arsenal has won like 1 out of the last 10 games they played and it’s all a big conspiracy against poor old Arsene??? Give us a break. And how about when Arsenal was winning week in, week out? Did any of you ever counted the wrong calls against you? Or even worse, the wrong calls in favor of Arsenal???? Go back to the Library, here’s a tissue…
Eddy - April 11th, 2008 at 7:47 pm
Dear CraqueBrito,I suspect your somewhat one eyed views have me believng that you enjoy watching your football at Stamford Bridge or worse still WHL,if you are indeed a Chelsea fan then atleast us Arsenal fans had the decency to admit that a poor ref’s decision cost you dearly in the CL against Liverpool when he decided that the ball had crossed the line and for once Jose’s rants made some sort of sense.However if you are a Spurs fan all I can do is feel sorry for you.
CraqueBrito - April 11th, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Well, Eddy, your one eye view can’t see that if Garcia’s goal had not crossed the line, and it did, there would have been a penalty on baros and a red card to cech. So yes, that was a very bad decision by the ref. Cause I, guess my team now, would have preferred a penalty and a red card instead of hearing this kind of crap after so many years. And I find it great that you’re defending your Chelsea London brothers. Maybe if all of you london sides get together maybe, just maybe, you’ll get half a dozen passionate supporters to put some roar in your dead stadiums.
Face - April 11th, 2008 at 8:06 pm
We need to get over it and look at how we can improve the squad. What happened happened, and not is the time for AW to think loudely and bring on couple of new blood to the squad, mainly defence and forwards.
Pompeyking - April 11th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Commiserations to all Arsenal fans. You really have been screwed by the refs lately this season. Even the most deluded of Spurs fans surely can’t reasonably disagree
(so what the hell is CraqueBrito ?!?!).
By the way, Chelsea have been extremely LUCKY!
They got Fenerbahce in the UCL draw (and even then almost mucked it up!)
They got Barnsley in the FA Cup (1-0 ROFLMAO!)
They got Huddersfield in some sort of competition
They got Norwich in some sort of competition
They somehow won 1-0 at Middlesborough and Boro hit the post more than 3 times!
The first goal against the gunners was offside
Need I go on!
Simon - April 11th, 2008 at 8:35 pm
The offside on Adebayour which led to Torres scoring was a clear offside. Even the embarrassingly anti-Liverpool ex-player Jim Beglin said he was just off and he, with Andy Gray, are the biggest Liverpool hating pundits out there. I can understand Gray but Beglin??
Anyway, I digress. Arsenal had so much of the ball over 3hrs of football and scored 3 goals. Sure, they should of had the penalty at Emirates but the fact is, they couldn’t break Liverpool down often enough.
Mind you, in over 6 hrs of semi-final football, Chelsea breached our defence once. So your not that bad. There goal was the only shot they had on target in 4 games.
The Babel penalty was stonewall. He had sold two defenders and was in the box and god knows what Toure was doing. Did any of the Arsenal players protest to the ref? Did they hell as like. They all had a go at Toure.
Arsenal are an excellent team probably on the verge of greatness but maybe if Arsene got his wallet out and bought a few quality additions instead of thinking he is clever buying young players and bringing them through, then you may have more success in Europe. I feel for Fabregas though. He is your shining light and give him a year or two he may decide to head back to Spain unless Arsene spends some of them millions sitting in the bank doing nothing.
Eddy - April 11th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Craque you have revealed yourself as a one eyed scouser rather than a Chelsea or Spurs fan that I suspected you to be.
No we Londoners don’t stick together(you wouldn’t be able to sit next to a Spurs or Chelsea fan at Arsenal without a punch being thrown,unlike your derby with Everton where you seem to love sharing your scouse wit together in the stands).As for Chelsea,if you think that me admitting that the ball didn’t cross the line hides some admiration for a club that spends £300 million on players but can only achieve 22,000 against Rosenberg in The CL,you are more deluded than I thought.Try reading the list of decisions produced to by A
Eddy - April 11th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
rsenal Times to get what this discussion is about.
Maybe you are frustrated that after year in year out spending an absolute fortune on players you rarely excite the nuetral and let’s face it Liverpool V Chelsea will be like watching paint dry.
Iam sure you will be of the opinion that “we are through,stuff that Arsenal lot”but take a moment to think that history is littered with unnatractive winners;
Greece in the Euros
Wimbledon against you
Porto in The CL etc etc etc
surely it must gripe you that your bitterest enemies approach the game with a totally different philosophy than you ie always trying to score and stretch the opposition whereas you boys seem to regularly take delight in stiffling the hell out of a game,Iam mean you have some of the best players in the World yet manage to produce regularly such average football.The League table doesn’t usually lie and you my friends are still a long way from having the attacking principles like Arsenal and Manchester United needed to win the League.
JC - April 11th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Craque batty, you really have no humility whatsoever do you, are you still hurting from 89 or what, if these decisions had gone against your team we would have heard just as much and you know it, so far a manc and a pompey fan have agreed with us, You got lucky and you know it, i realy hope Liverpool go on and win the thing to be honest, i dont see how you can fail with UEFA backing you like they do!
They are Jealous - April 11th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Breaking News the bank of England is collapsing !!! who caused it ARSENAL!! thats what we will be getting soon. O ye fellow gunners they are jealous of us it used to be 1-0 to the ARsenal - they are so boring. Now it is there pretty football they need to be able to grind out result.
We cant satisfy c#nts (andy gray, MOTD etc) as that is not the purpose of our beautiful club. Dont blame us if english player are over rated and over priced!! Rooney for £30mil dont remember him scoring over 20 goals a season - or do you?
Same Arsene that they want sacked- he should have done this he should have done that - is the same guys they have been begging for the national team!!
So my fellow supporters lets bask in the attention (negative or positive) as we are the envy of the suckers. Wouldnt it be so nice if we could play in a league like la liga and leave the suckers with thier so called “passion” i.e break the opposing players leg football.
I love it they are jealous of us - Trophy (they are for cabinets and history books anyway) or not this is a legendary era for the club (and more is still too come) - we will tell our kids about this squad trust me!
Portsmouth will prob win the F.A cup does that make them a great team? You see my point guys?
Lets stick together and make some more noise (so the refs tremble when they visits the emirates too)!!
To victory at old trafford on sunday!! - dont believe the media hype they are not invincible they were almosts raped by middlesborough - need anymore proof?
Drew Vader - April 11th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
shut the fuck up Rich, the only reason you were at 49 unbeaten was because either pires the homosexual musketeer or bergkamp, i cant remember which, took one of the worst most blatant dives in the history of the game against palace to get you a penalty. so yeah, i admit there wasnt much contact between sol and rooney, but what goes around comes around as they say. no sympathy there.
as for the pool games recently, now there you have something to complain about. And also, noone mentions it, but galas took a disgusting dive right infront of the arse supports at anfield after the score was already 4-2. i think the ball went out for a corner but his attempt at a dive was hilarious….
tommy - April 11th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
If the hleb penalty was then the babel pen definately was. The contact was much stronger and from two players.
The fabregas “pen” in the middle game was very iffy. Frankly if the tiny tug that pulled down a full grown man, now counts as a penalty in the english game, it’s time to stop watching. Those kinds of tugs are ten a penny at corners and free kicks if refs start giving them then we’ll have games with goals in double figures.
Jesus TittyF**king Christ - April 11th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
Whinge as much you like,Liverpool are through Arsenal are out To blame the refs for all Arsenals failings is pathetic.If Arsenal were good enough they would have beaten Liverpool they weren’t, they didn’t so move on
JohnC - April 11th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
One thought for all the bitter, whingeing gooners
IF my aunty had balls she’s be my uncle
Operative word? If
An Open Comment On Behalf of The Other 19 Clubs - April 12th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Dear whinging Arsenal fans,
You dive, cheat, crowd the referee (chelsea-esque) and then a few decisions go against you and there are conspiracies and you would have won the league by now etc etc. It happens to everyone..get over it!
And to the idiot (Hleb) who came out and said that there are leg-breakers etc and Martin Taylor getting a 3-game ban wasn’t adequate….What a load of bollocks…Once again, get over it, it wasn’t intentional!!
So draining to hear you lot whinging non-stop…No wonder you’re fans and team are the most hated in the Premiership, after Chelsea obviously.
Croco Bob - April 12th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Fuck u Arse fans. When u lost a game, a lot of whinning from ur Manager, ARSEne wenger. U fucking lots are terrible. Got a crying baby Captain to lead u?
Come on this is a man’s game not for babies. Grow up Arsenal. Oh yes i forgot…. ARSEne Wenger brings in babies only. That’s why he sold off Viera, Petit, Henry, side lined Lehman, Gilberto. He can only control babies.
frank - April 12th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Generally speaking, out if the top four, its Arsenal fans I enjoy a footy chat with as a Red. They seem to have brains and even in the George Graham days, understood more about football than the average London fan. This seems to be changing, especially with the high horses that some seem to enjoy riding. It’s as if, since whinging Wenger and his pretty football, there are some who feel a divine right to victory no matter what.
I have such an admiration for Arsene, till he opens his mouth. Whether missing the blatant crimes of his own or only witnessing the crime in what is done to his team and denying a similar situation to the opposition at least in this he is consistent. A pity, as he is a class manager, but a great big hypocrite. Still, at least not quite the hideous narcissist that Maureen was.
For sometime now, I have debated the weakness of Arsenal with goners and it’s always a lack of steel thought the middles that made me see them as flawed. This flaw is Wenger’s weakness and it persists. The Reds won, and by a good margin, so it would be a little gracious to simply admit defeat and show a little dinity.
tommy - April 12th, 2008 at 7:30 am
Agree with Frank above, of all other prem teams I like arsenal fans the best as they are generally knowledgable. This whinging has to stop though. Football’s a game of ifs
Clichy should have been booked for bringing down Torres on the edge of the area in the first game which would have ruled him out for the second leg and left Arsenal with more problems at the back.
Flamini used his arm to control the ball for arse’s first goal anyhow.
http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m31/Tornike/bscap0002a.gif
Hyppia was pulled back in the penalty area on tuesday a number of times- difference was he didn’t spin like a top and roll around the pitch like hleb or fabregas.
Eddy - April 12th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Drew Vader you thick prick,Palace weren’t in The Premiership when we went unbeaten.Good ,intelligent,well rounded piece though,you could get a job writing for your programme down at WHL.
frank - April 13th, 2008 at 5:02 am
ARSENAL F.C.
End of Season Dinner Dance
Starter
Egg on Face
Seasoned Hash
Frogs legs (past their best)
Spanish Surprise (well beaten)
Main course
Humble Pie
Chump Chops
French (has) Beans
Manager’s Beef (not rare)
Catch of the Day - (gutted)
NB: everything is imported, nothing is home grown.
Dessert
Sour Grapes (may be hard to swallow)
Fruitless Tarts
Raspberry Fools
Hard Cheese
Bitter
Little Spirit
French Whine
Cabernet Empty 2008
Champagne - sorry none ordered
STRICTLY NO DOUBLES OR TREBLES
N.B. should be consumed from glasses as there will be no cups this year.
Guests are asked not to get HAMMERED
Guest speaker:
Steven Gerrard & Rafa Benitez - “What it’s like to win the European Cup”
Please note that the club’s European Tour for the season 2008-09 is not guaranteed.