Arsenal against the rest: Everton, the refs, the epl, the fa…. « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

By Walter Broeckx

Most of you know that I write my ref reviews after looking at the game and situations over and over again. I think I have made that clear already this season. So for those who are anxious to have my “professional” view on the ref you have to wait a bit. This is Walter, the Gooner writing, Walter the supporter.

How I feel proud right now. Proud of our Gunners. Proud of our Gooners. Winning a football game is not always easy. Let me start by giving credit to Everton. They did all they could to stop us from winning the game. This is what they are paid for so I will not blame them for the way they have played today. It is their right to play like that. I don’t like it but nothing can be done about it. I don’t like kicking teams but if this is all they can come up with so be it. I don’t like the time wasting from the first seconds but if this is all they can come up with so be it. But how poor for their  supporters I would say.

Playing against 11 is already difficult enough in the EPL. Most teams, er no teams in fact, come to the Emirates to give us a free route on goal.

But playing against 12 is very difficult, let alone against 13 or 14 or even 15. I will not take away to much from my ref review but believe me the things that our own Dogface warned us for was on show tonight. And even more than I could have expected. I still have to look at all situations clearly but the times I was shouting at my TV over yet again a mistake by the ref was very high. Even my wife came over to see what was wrong because my son and I were screaming all kinds of abuse against the ref.

And one of our  great readers also pointed at an assistant with a little  goatee beard.  He warned us for him and boy was he correct. Great job Red Jessie!

About the Everton goal I will only say one thing: this was a very very very big mistake from the assistant and from the ref. And my God did they knew it. And if he didn’t knew it then the assistant and the ref should be banned for live and never again set a foot on an EPL field. But more on that tomorrow when I will give you the rules and tell you how they got this totally wrong.

If we would have lost today this would have been robbery in clear Emirates floodlight. The kind of decisions that cost us the title in the 2007-2008 season. Remember the Dean show after the Eduardo horror in Birmingham? Remember the disallowed goal from Adebayor when a defender made a back pass against Middlesbrough (I think). This was in this order.

So for me it is clear. It is us against the other teams (fair enough) but is also us against the rest of football in England. The Mike Riley maffia of referees are against us. How else can you call an organisation which has a former ref in charge who ended on his own our unbeaten run at Old Trafford in that utterly disgraceful way. It is this clown who allows refs and assistants like we have seen tonight  on our fields.

And I think everyone in the Emirates realised, even without reading Dogface before the game, that we was playing against Everton and the refs.  The Everton players could do almost anything and he only blew his whistle when there was real danger of an injury. And even then you could see that he didn’t like the fact that he had to blow his whistle.

But enough about those robbers. Let us give some credit to the boys. Because I know playing against 14 people with only 11 is very difficult. You feel so helpless as a player when you feel that the ref will do anything to prevent you from playing. And this leads to frustration and anger and then you kick back and then might get in trouble yourself for doing half of what the other team is allowed.

But our players responded magnificent. They refused to give up. They refused to accept defeat. They only wanted one thing: take the 3 points and win this game.

And we did. And is this the goal that will turn the season of Arshavin around? Is this what he has been waiting for? What a great strike as Tony will tell you as he was sitting in the line of the shot I think. Or close to it.

And what about our signing of the summer Koscielny? What a great vision from the manager once again. He didn’t start like Vermaelen last season but he is starting to get there. Another goal today and what an important one. As this was the goal that cancelled the robbery and gave us the 3 points. And for me this is another clean sheet. The goal was not valid so for me we didn’t concede. So again a clean sheet and another goal for him.

When our game didn’t work as usual (thanks to the kicking allowed by the ref and his refusal to give us free kicks) we could only fight harder and harder and harder. And so we did. And that is all I can ask from our players. All of them have fought till the end. Injured or not, they kept on running. They kept on fighting.

This is the spirit which you need to win things. And I know we haven’t won anything this season (just like the other teams in fact) but if we keep fighting like that we will come close.

I can only applaud our players for their efforts today and for the way they fought against injustice. All of them. Thanks Gunners. And thanks Gooners in the stadium as I heard you shouting and shouting and support the team in the rough times. Together we stand, together we fight. Let us give new meanings to the words: Victory trough Harmony.

Oh and I think you will look forward to my ref review. Can’t wait to get my hands on this. See you tomorrow hopefully around noon with the ref review.