Another win against Blackburn
Another fantastic win against Blackburn, this time for different reason. I love goals but it's also great to win games that you're not expected to and so that proved on Saturday. I refuse to pay for PremPlus games given I give far too much money to Sky already, so it was another Saturday evening listening to Arsenal.com. However after 12 minutes of the game it seemed as if it was going to be the same old story. Gilberto off (more on that in a minute) down to ten men and still 70+ minutes left to play, in a game when somebody of Gilberto's quality was going to be vital.
But.... and here's the great thing, it actually played right into our hands. As soon as Gilberto went off the pressure was on Blackburn to go for the win, to do that they had to try and play a bit of football and that was their downfall (as it was at the Emirates). Often the worry in such situations is that the team can become distracted by such decisions, Van Persie in the Sheffield game for example, but I think it galvanised the team.
So what about the Gilberto incident, to be honest I think the ref could have given him the benefit of the doubt and given both of them a warning or both yellows but he didn't. If the ref feels it was a sending off then fine but as others have pointed out Gilberto will now miss 3 games. What annoys me is the FA's inaction in such cases, things either go totally unpunished if the ref didn't see it or players get 3 match bans for flicking a leg. In isolation I wouldn't be too bothered but then on Sunday we see Chimbonda for Spurs strike another player across the face and all he gets is a yellow. Let's hope the FA do something similar to what happened with Chris Morgans punch on Van Persie and punish retrospectively.
One thing I did see in the game was another fantastic moment from Fabregas, just after the tackle by Tugay, Neill and Fabregas had a little tussle, the ref came over to calm things down but as they were jogging back Neill had something to say, Cesc's response was to smile and hold 2 fingers up with one hand and none on the other. In my opinion that's exactly the way you should respond to such provocation, get your revenge on the football pitch, there is nothing better to say up yours to an opponent than to beat them and show than no amount of kicking or provocation can get to you. It's not the first time, he did the same thing against either Watford or Sheffield Utd at the Emirates, he was pushed off the ball just outside the area, the defender got up stood over Cesc and said something, he just got up held 3 fingers up smiled and went off to take the corner. It's something Fabregas should have a word with Van Persie about.
But.... and here's the great thing, it actually played right into our hands. As soon as Gilberto went off the pressure was on Blackburn to go for the win, to do that they had to try and play a bit of football and that was their downfall (as it was at the Emirates). Often the worry in such situations is that the team can become distracted by such decisions, Van Persie in the Sheffield game for example, but I think it galvanised the team.
So what about the Gilberto incident, to be honest I think the ref could have given him the benefit of the doubt and given both of them a warning or both yellows but he didn't. If the ref feels it was a sending off then fine but as others have pointed out Gilberto will now miss 3 games. What annoys me is the FA's inaction in such cases, things either go totally unpunished if the ref didn't see it or players get 3 match bans for flicking a leg. In isolation I wouldn't be too bothered but then on Sunday we see Chimbonda for Spurs strike another player across the face and all he gets is a yellow. Let's hope the FA do something similar to what happened with Chris Morgans punch on Van Persie and punish retrospectively.
One thing I did see in the game was another fantastic moment from Fabregas, just after the tackle by Tugay, Neill and Fabregas had a little tussle, the ref came over to calm things down but as they were jogging back Neill had something to say, Cesc's response was to smile and hold 2 fingers up with one hand and none on the other. In my opinion that's exactly the way you should respond to such provocation, get your revenge on the football pitch, there is nothing better to say up yours to an opponent than to beat them and show than no amount of kicking or provocation can get to you. It's not the first time, he did the same thing against either Watford or Sheffield Utd at the Emirates, he was pushed off the ball just outside the area, the defender got up stood over Cesc and said something, he just got up held 3 fingers up smiled and went off to take the corner. It's something Fabregas should have a word with Van Persie about.
posted by Andrew Gilfrin at 12:03 PM
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