Loss Premier League: Aston Villa 1 - 0 Arsenal | Saturday 9th December | KO: 17:30 GMT | Sky Sports

Prediction

Villa 0-1 Arsenal

 

[Clrnc]

The ball clearly hits his elbow. I worry for your eyesight

I worry for yours. The ball does not for one bit change trajectory at all.

It did hit his fingers at 0:15 in another angle but his arms was down and absolutely in a natural position.

 

[Rasmi]

I worry for yours. The ball does not for one bit change trajectory at all.

It did hit his fingers at 0:15 in another angle but his arms was down and absolutely in a natural position.

His fingers are part of his hand. The rules for defenders and attackers are not the same. Any handball whether it’s unintentional or hand don’t leave natural position don’t matter when it comes to goals. It will be chalked off

 

[SA Gunner]

I worry for yours. The ball does not for one bit change trajectory at all.

It did hit his fingers at 0:15 in another angle but his arms was down and absolutely in a natural position.

Thank you for highlighting this. I’m honestly looking for the handball, even if unintentional. Because I wanted to understand how the referee was so confident to disallow the goal so quickly.

It looks more and more to me, like the referee wanted to disallow the goal more than anything else out there and used his powers to do so.

 

[Ivan the Gooner]

I blame arsenal-mania forum for this loss.

 

[samshere]

Looked to me that the ref saw the ball deflect off his chest and thought that was hand. That's the only deflection that can be seen without a microscope. Not enough for the VAR to overrule it. But it's frustrating that we're not getting anything in our favour. Should have got either this or the penalty decision go for us.

 

[Tourbillion]

I've taken this one really badly. Slept like **** and feel like **** this morning.

I guess that's what caring and being invested in something again does to you.

 

[SA Gunner]

His fingers are part of his hand. The rules for defenders and attackers are not the same. Any handball whether it’s unintentional or hand don’t leave natural position don’t matter when it comes to goals. It will be chalked off

And the ref conclusively saw all that from 30 yards away, with players in his way as well?

Yeah, not buying it. The referee wanted to cancel the goal and he did just that. VAR could not overturn the onfield decision either likely due to lack of conclusive evidence.

Another one to remember when we make a case for biased refereeing. No question about it.

That’s all I’ll say on this topic. It is what it is.

 

[Tourbillion]

Please stop talking about referees and VAR. These scandals will never leave Arsenal, we're doomed until death, so let's just talk about our performances please.

 

[Macho]

The ball hit Havertz arm please stop this man. Watching it in slow mo, sideways, upside down, changes nothing.

 

[freeglennhelder2]

Arsenal have raised our expectations to the point we were all absolutely certain we would equalise. It was a nasty shock we didn’t.

Missed some decent chances and wasted a good number of decent positions where for a period we were regularly cutting though their offside trap like a knife through butter. Forget VAR/Ref for this one.

Was very surprised Villa backed off after their early goal but in hindsight it was the right tactic.

 

[MikeVinna]

Sadly I missed this game. Watching the highlights back right now.

Letting Emi go was fooking stupid. Jesus getting kicked is a pen. We had so many chances it’s ridiculous how we find it so hard to score. The Havertz goal, was it reviewed?

 

[SA Gunner]

The ball hit Havertz arm please stop this man. Watching it in slow mo, sideways, upside down, changes nothing.

No, you cant say that for sure man. We cant even tell on the slowed down, zoomed in footage.

The referee very likely guessed from 30 yards away, that's what happened. That's his right, as he has to take a decision as a referee.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

I'm really disappointed about the last 30 minutes or so. We really slowed down and stopped creating as many chances, really resorted to just trying to play over their high-line, it was like they were baiting us to do it because they knew we're not at our best playing that way. That said we did expose them plenty of times but toward the final 3rd maybe 4th of the game we became sloppy and those balls were becoming more hopefully than carefully executed.

 

[Stevo the Villan]

Ill give the referee the benefit of the doubt for the immediate ruling out. He probably saw the ball touch Havertz' hand, and blew it up.

But on camera, there is no clear evidence of the ball touching Havertz on the hand or even arm. VAR had to likely stick with the onfield decision hence the goal being ruled out.

I assume you’re just choosing not to see it clearly touching his hand, more than once, on the replays.

Each to their own

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Need Mik to hammering home this point during training, although most teams won't play like Villa did (tho Brighton and Liverpool might play somewhat of a highline). Especially someone of Zinchenko's quality you'd expect that to be a relatively simple ball, but like I said the last portion of the game we were so poor.

 

[SA Gunner]

I'm really disappointed about the last 30 minutes or so. We really slowed down and stopped creating as many chances, really resorted to just trying to play over their high-line, it was like they were baiting us to do it because they knew we're not at our best playing that way. That said we did expose them plenty of times but toward the final 3rd maybe 4th of the game we became sloppy and those balls were becoming more hopefully than carefully executed.

Yup, that's true.

We started to panic in the last quarter of the game. It felt right at the time to me, but if I think about it now I realise that it took away a lot of our unpredictability in attack. We were just looking for balls into the final third down the halfspaces. Direct and can be damaging, but also easy to defend against.

We should have looked to continue to move the ball around the pitch and try and stretch them. That I think could have yielded better results.

The team will learn though, composure is key during critical moments.

 

[1970*Gooner]

They wanted it more than us, we had our chances at the end of the day they were the better team had the better manager so on we go.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Yup, that's true.

We started to panic in the last quarter of the game. It felt right at the time to me, but if I think about it now I realise that it took away a lot of our unpredictability in attack. We were just looking for balls into the final third down the halfspaces. Direct and can be damaging, but also easy to defend against.

We should have looked to continue to move the ball around the pitch and try and stretch them. That I think could have yielded better results.

The team will learn though, composure is key during critical moments.

Think this is where the team really missed Arteta on the sidelines.

 

[SA Gunner]

I assume you’re just choosing not to see it clearly touching his hand, more than once, on the replays.

Each to their own

No I do not choose to not see where the ball touches his hand. I know exactly what you are referring to there.

If that ball brushing Kai's hand is a handball, then the ball brushing Cash's hand before and after that moment is a handball as well. All of those handballs by both players being in a natural arm position situation.

Its interesting that for Kai its a handball but for Cash facing him... it not. One cant be deliberate and the other not. And please dont tell me about the rules being harsh on the attacker, you cant make such a calculated decision so quickly from so far away.

The fact of the matter here is that the referee guessed, and it was the wrong decision taken.

 

[SA Gunner]

And you know what was the worst decision in this game by this referee, it wasnt even the two box decisions IMO.

It was the yellow card given to the Villa player for elbowing Nketiah. No VAR review and he didnt even see it. Guess the ref saw another upper arm use with his third eye.