Football

Fair enough, although that's arguably a worse place to break your leg.

It was a strange match, Everton seemed to feed off the tension in the stadium and went flying into tackles. Mike Dean totally lost control of the match and Arsenal players retreated into their shells. I'm pretty disappointed the Arsenal players didn't stand up for their mate after the Godfrey stamp.

although that's arguably a worse place to break your leg.

Aaron Ramsey may disagree.

I won't defend Godfrey for the stamp, I think he probably knew what he was doing. Gordon's was a yellow card, IMHO, a forward's challenge. Dangled a foot in to try and win the ball but didn't really put much weight or malice into it. Looks worse in slow motion.

Just rolled up at the pub before Leyton Orient v Swindon. Got a bit wet riding here so am sat with a pint and my boots drying on a handily-placed radiator. Lots of Swindon fans in here. Looked at the form table, to see that Swindon have won their last 8 (eight) away games.

Bugger.

Half way up or into the ankles, take your pick, one ended Eduardo's career the other diabys...

And the Gordon challenge was nothing like either. 👍🏽

Ignoring MK Dons (that's fair, right?), Orient are 11 undefeated at home (quick count, could be wrong).

Nothing like? Not really, quite similar in outcome and obviously identical in intent. That is throw in a nasty tackle to unsettle the opposition, no need to care if it breaks a leg or not...

Enjoy it? Wish I was there.

Just found a good clip: https://imgur.com/a/KyyKfjj

Looks really similar to this: https://dailycannon.com/2019/02/a-career-ruined-in-sunderland-abou-diaby-retires/

So yeah, lets drop the Arsenal are whingeing timewasters narrative yeah?

So yeah, lets drop the Arsenal are whingeing timewasters narrative yeah?

Yeah, as there's definitely no evidence of that.

None more so than with any other premier League team. It's a cliche that soft southern Arsenal are all floppy whereas the hard northerners of Bolton and Stoke and good upstanding folk. Watch any game with those lot and then you'll see some timewasting. Jeez , if you watch Arsenal a lot the last thing you'll get is that we're regularly out to waste time. We'd have to be leading more games before that was a sensible tactic!

And before we get sidetracked let's mention the four (and half) players who've had their careers badly affected by Godfrey style play. Eduardo, diaby, Ramsey, Debussy and Leno for a half point. Was Wilsheres career shortened by the treatment he got?

So even if we do whinge, maybe it's because we've been targeted, hospitalised and seen no consequence for the offenders.

They don't look that similar. The Diaby one had studs up, the Gordon one it's the side of his foot, not the studs, that make contact so there's less force (probably why it wasn't deemed a red).

Of course it could be argued that it was a red and Arsenal can still be whinging timewasters too.

I don't see the need for equivocation, both players are trying to do the same thing. And every now and then a player's career is ended.

If you've played football you know that Gordons body position is all about putting force into his striking foot, to hit whatever as hard as possible. That's why it's the same.

Ben Mee is one of the worst offenders imo.

The Everton tackles were bad but not as bad as they re being made out to be, and the stamping on face comment was totally overblown, it was nothing of the sort. Seemed he accidentally caught him when putting his foot down, maybe a hint of leaving a toe in, but it is not stamping on the face, which is clearly what VAR thought too. See rugby for some proper stamping on face action.

Also the Arsenal time wasting was beyond taking the piss when that player had cramp at about 70 mins. He went down, had a team made grab his leg and stretch it out for him, then he decides to stay down and calls for the trainer for a bloody full massage or something. The ref should have told him to fuck off the pitch at that point if he wanted further treatment, and then we'd have seen a sudden and miraculous recovery.

Jimenez did a doozey time waste this week too, clattered into the advertising hoardings by the goal, then made sure he found his way back onto the pitch, only then deciding to go down like a sack of spuds and call for help.

Seemed he accidentally caught him

Lol, noone serious thinks that, only the extremely gullible or those who enjoy violence on the pitch.

You'll be telling us next Granit Xhaka is simply misunderstood.

Fuck all you snowflakes trying to cancel reducers.

Reducers are just the resort of people who are shit at football.

They may be vaguely "fun" for some people to watch on television (probably a large overlap with people who find boxing or MMA "fun" to watch) but actually playing football they have zero fucking place in the game.

Don’t really want to continue the debate as I don’t think either of us is going to change opinion, however the one on Diaby is a studs-up sliding challenge with both feet off the ground (not planted), and Gordon’s challenge just isn’t.

Both are intended to hurt the opponent first and flirt with the borderline of the rules, enabled by lax refereeing and a culture in football that encourages the hardman, Englishman trope.

If you think Gordon had no intent to hurt tavares then good luck in life because it's a stated on record behaviour typical of such teams.

+1

Fuck me, I bet you still believe that Alan Shearer's studs got caught in the pitch.

https://youtu.be/zP20RxVPUCk

I'm confused

I think I enjoy the Liverpool post-match moaning and conspiracy theories much more than the Arsenal ones...

There was a match. There were some bad tackles and a bit of time wasting. Arsenal played bad and lost. The same will happen again this weekend.