Arsenal v AFC Bournemouth - Saturday 12.30 pm

Ok, I admit you've lost me. Which is the ludicrous bit and where does Adam Smith at Burnley come into it?
The referee at Burnley didn’t give anything for smiths handball, we went up the other end and scored. They ruled out our goal and gave them a penalty.

So the Athletics statement is ludicrous.
 
Ah, I thought you meant the disallowed goal from a couple of months back when Smith went over fairly easily. Still way more of a foul than Saturdays but I've seen those goals given so...

The one you're talking about was seasons ago and they've tinkered with how much VAR should get involved with decisions a lot since then. That it's still so bad is a pretty damning indictment. Anyway, as egregious as that Burnley decision was, I don't think it's that relevant to what's happening this season which is what The Athletic were discussing.
 
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There I am rubbishing The Athletic on another thread and then they go ahead and publish this:


Actual discussion of a couple of the decisions that went against us. It claims they did also review the Billing foul but, again, because the ref hadn't given it then they didn't overrule it. Yes, wrapped up in a larger VAR article, but that's fair enough. Turns out we still exist!
The on field official not spotting it doesnt mean the on field decision was no foul.
The purpose of VAR is to inform the on field official of things he or she needs to decide if it breaks the laws of the game.
VAR is not intended to overrule the on field official, it is there to ASSIST.

The Howard Webb defence of making it up as they go along. Any sign of him yet ?
 
Difficult to disagree with that.

Thanks - for calling me an idiot. I don't know why I'm wasting my fingers typing this, but anyway. I find these sort of forum comments a good example of why this forum can be depressing - we are two long term, presumably adult forum members that should be able to hold a reasonable conversation without resorting to petty & puerile one-liners, surely. I am a fifty something adult male, and being on here sometimes reminds of when my kids were teenagers. I know we all come on here for different reasons, and are in different places, and have consumed different amounts of alcohol and/or mind bending drugs, but jesus it's hard work sometimes. Anyway, mini-rant over.
 
The on field official not spotting it doesnt mean the on field decision was no foul.
The purpose of VAR is to inform the on field official of things he or she needs to decide if it breaks the laws of the game.
VAR is not intended to overrule the on field official, it is there to ASSIST.

The Howard Webb defence of making it up as they go along. Any sign of him yet ?
Seems they do send them to the screen a lot but the refs don’t go against VAR very often as they get told it must be the wrong decision?
 
There I am rubbishing The Athletic on another thread and then they go ahead and publish this:


Actual discussion of a couple of the decisions that went against us. It claims they did also review the Billing foul but, again, because the ref hadn't given it then they didn't overrule it. Yes, wrapped up in a larger VAR article, but that's fair enough. Turns out we still exist!
Although I think VAR in the the PL is too far gone now for fans, I do think that having the ref go over and review incidents more often, as the article states, the bar is too high right now but I think this is where other leagues are implementing VAR better, get the ref to take a look at these things and see if maybe their judgment was incorrect.
 
Here we are on Monday morning in NA and I still don't understand those decisions given to Arsenal. Surely, Arsenal being such a very good side, don't need the officials and VAR to bail them out. Even though I think we would have lost if no penalty was awarded and AFCB's goal stood, but that's not how a game should be decided. The first half was a little disappointing for us but I'm not sure whether that's entirely down to tactics or Arsenal's good play. Always a difficult one to assess. The second half we ended up playing the way we all like to see so whether that first period was down to the players playing to a preconceived strategy or failing AI's instruction I don't know. I thought Dango handled Saka very well and you can see his confidence is growing as he plays more minutes. At the time I didn't see much in the Christie tackle on Saka but in slow motion it didn't look good (doesn't it always). That he didn't get even a yellow was a bit of a surprise. but he duly went on to make a few more "mistimed" tackles which he got that yellow that was in the post for him. Travers seems to have brought some confidence to the defense, but I think he should have done much better with Arsenal's third. I don't have too much beef about the remaining players with the exception of Faivre. I accept that he hasn't had many minutes so far but those that he has had have been completely underwhelming for me. He looks lost as the game passes him by and he seems to be unaware that AI's system requires hard work. I've not seen any of that. He seems to be a vanity project compared to all of our other players. Hopefully, the pre-season will sort that out. Now for a win against Brentford and their cheating bar steward Toney to take us past 50 points.
 
There I am rubbishing The Athletic on another thread and then they go ahead and publish this:


Actual discussion of a couple of the decisions that went against us. It claims they did also review the Billing foul but, again, because the ref hadn't given it then they didn't overrule it. Yes, wrapped up in a larger VAR article, but that's fair enough. Turns out we still exist!
Thanks for that, really interesting. The answer seems obvious - if there's any doubt about a decision just send the ref to look at the replays and let him decide whether he was right or wrong. Alternatively, and preferably, either get rid of it or just use it for line calls.
 
Listening to Cherries Unpicked and Kris Temple mentioned that all 5 referees reviewing the key decisions thought our disallowed goal was an incorrect decision.
I’m pretty sure a lot of refs have this subconscious thing which tells them if a high-profile striker from a big club falls over in the box he’s got to have been tripped, and if a high profile keeper from same club gets out-muscled by a small club striker then the striker’s bound to have fouled him too. That’s the only rational explanation for me. Either that or we really have been just so unlucky to get so many really really poor refs.
 
We were the way worse team overall, but had we got in at nil nil the pep talk at half time would have had Andoni on the up and Arteta panicking.

The penalty just before half time changed the entire complexity of the game.

The psychology of the game, and football is, for the most part psychological, got handed to Arsenal.

The problem with VAR, and all the bad decisions that seem to go with it, seem to point to the truth that those involved with VAR, the decision makers, also get involved with the psychology of the game, when they are supposed to be impartial.

The problem with VAR is those who make the decisions, most likely are heavily vested in the game, know the league table, and are swayed by it.
 
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