Wigan defeated, but Arsenal lose respect
Posted by liam_wafc in Wigan | 11 February 2007
Before i start, after watching Wigan take on Arsenal on the box (i had a ticket, but had to sell it due to work commitments) I have to admit that Arsenal play fantastic football, and along with Manchestter United are among the most entertaining teams in the world.
But despite this, i'm still going to have a rant.
Leading up to Arsenal's equaliser, i believe the referee Phil Dowd had officiated the game well, and resisted temptation to give Arsenal penalties (most obvious when Henry fell when no-one was near him and Gail Clichy's attempted dive).
Yet, it shouldn't come as a surprise that in the space of three minutes, Phil Dowd would continue to become the most hated referee in Wigan. After denying Wigan a clear penalty (yes Heskey made the most of it but there was a clear tug on the shoulder.
As if this was not good enough, Dowd then refused to allow Josip Skoko return to the field, let Arsenal take a quick free kick, then Dowd's linesman chipped in by allowing Flamini to play in Henry despite being offisde.
Arsenal have also lost a certain amount of respect, moreso because of their captain, but more of that in abit. Wigan, and in particular Chris Kirkland, at times did time waste, but when a small club like ourselves are leading at the Emirates, you cannot blame us.
However, despite Wenger and his troops comaplaining about our time wasting antics, that didn't stop themselves from doing it when they took the lead.
Thierry Henry, has lost a considerable amount of respect, not just from Wigan fans, but from many other clubs fans and pundits. His dive in the first half was pathetic, but his reaction to Chris Kirkland, was disgraceful and fully deserving of his yellow card.
Despite attempting to apologise twice, the damage has been done, Arsenal and their twelfth man Dowd have stolen points from Wigan.
Congratulations to Jewell and our Latics players, valiant effort which, despite defeat, has ended with plenty of positives.
Comments
Hang on,
For once Arsenal get a win when maybe a draw would have been fairer. But Arsenal have suffered more than most when it comes to opposition time wasting at the Emirates in particular (viz Man Utd recently). And yes, shock horror probe - Henry is no saint!! Imagine that?!! It makes him just the same as other leading Premiership strikers in this regard, only with bags more talent. I genuinely hope Wigan stay up because I like them as a team and they probably deserved more today. But all this talk of losing respect for Arsenal and Henry is a little sanctimonious (look it up).
I have to say that I disagree with you.Firstly, just because Wigan arent a massive club does not give them the right to time waste. Its so frustrating when people do that and I wouldnt like it if Arsenal time wasted. But seeing Wigan time again and again and again disrupting the flow of the game, Im not going to blame Henry of taking it out of Kirkland or Lehman doing time wasting himself. I was actually happy that he did it just like he did it to Man u after Arsenal scored the winning goal. Why cant Arsenal time waste if Wigan time waste aswell. Coming back to the point of Henry, he shouldnt have done it but when your that frustrated about Wigans time wasting you cant do anything but laugh!
I am an Arsenal fan, but I too hate poor sportsmanship and hypocrisy. I don't blame you for losing a little respect for Arsenal. Henry showed very poor sportsmanship and Lehmann embarrassed us. I can only hope that Lehmann got his card on purpose as a strategic decision (he was going to sit out the League Cup final anyway). The offsides goals evened out, though, as Adebayor's could easily have been called onside. I believe that Heskey would have gotten the call if he had tried to keep his feet. But he went down easily when fouled by Flamini and I wouldn't have called the penalty for that reason. Henry did dive well after contact (and should have been carded), but Clichy didn't. Clichy goes at full speed and doesn't dive. The little bit of contact truly did knock him down.
Three points for Wigan would not have been representative of the match. But your side probably deserved a point. Good luck in your battles....I hope that you stay up!!
well, maybe they did it (time wasting) because kirkland was doing it not at times, all the time? And maybe Henry said to kirkland after 1-1 that try keep the ball now? there was bad errors from referee, but if 1-1 was offside, adebayors goal wasn't. Most important error he made was not sending heskey off with elbowing djourou. and heskey's jump in the box? at this point he should atleast got yellow from that. What about foul made when clichy got in the box with the ball? shouldn't that be penalty?
Heskeys elbow and Kirklands timewasting, yes you`re a small team...
Dowds linesman waved his f-g flag when Ade scored...
And yes, Heskey made the most out of Flaminis touch, 225 lbs falling like that, bloody disgrace for a rugby-team..
Jewell is going down..
Well,
EPl is about ugly football.
Wasting time is wrong and you cant say smaller teams can do it.
Strikers falling too easily should be considered diving.
We have seen countless times when arsenal players are brought down in the penalty box and nothing had been given
stop crying, you just lost respect, timewaste all game and complain when we get a bit of revenge? get over it. if we were 1-0 up at half time we wouldnt be time wasting but you deserved it, and it was done more to prove a point anyway.
if you hadnt timewasted you would have had more time to get it back to 2-2, theres a lesson there...
Whether Arsenal deserve to win or Wigan should at leaves bring a point back - It all doesn't matter. Referee decision is always final. Be it he made a good or bad decision..
That is football for you. Those who actually play be it amateur or pro football knows it very well. It the points that counts and table standings that matters.
Also on wasting time - We just have to leave on with it. Ref can disk up tons of yellow cards but that will not stop anyone from doing it. However you can learn what Arsenal do. Holds and pass around the field as long as possible but not launching any attacks. That is time wasting too right?
As an Arsenal-supporter for almost 30 years, I can't help the feeling we were lucky today.
Wigan should feel proud of themeselves after this game. I can't remember many teams creating so many chances against us at Emirates.
Heskey should have had a penalty. If the same situation had happened on the other side of the pitch without a penalty given, I'd throw darts at Dowd's picture for weeks.
Flamini was offside.
Henry dived - and had a reaction against Kirkland I don't want our captain to do no matter what the Wigan stopper did first. Henry should raise himself above that.
But then again not all of the dubious decisions went against Wigan.
Heskey should have been sent off for elbowing Djorou.
Clichy could easily have had a penalty.
Still Wigan should take all the positives they can from this match. If they perform like today for the rest of the season, they soon will be out of danger of relegation.
It is true that wigan were a bit unlucky. Heskey's penalty is the kind of challenge that shouldn't be given as a penalty but invariably is (witness Senderos red card last week for doing less than flamini did today). A draw would probably be fair on that basis, as while everyone will point to the offside cross for the equaliser, so far there has been no mention anywhere of adeybayor's incorrectly disallowed goal about 10 minutes earlier.
As for the time wasting thing, Henry shouldn't have reacted in the way he did, as you rightly say it does him no credit..BUT...Kirkland (who I like) was regularly taking 60-90 seconds over goal kicks for the whole second half, and then Lehmann gets booked for doing exactly the same thing ONCE after the 3rd goal. It hardly illustrates consistancy.
To say Phil Dowd was arsenal's twelth man is giving him too much credit...he is just one of a number of our current referees who sadly just aren't up to the job. So often this year I've seen referees who manage to make utterly inexplicable decisions and allow themselves to be influenced by preceedings.
If Wigan hadn't been timewasting they probably would have got their penalty, and if Paul Jewell hadn't been so rightly upset about the equalising goal, Arsenal wouldn't have had 5 players booked in the last 10 minutes.
Time and again you see incredible fussiness married with a large dose of myopia, which continues to illustrate the fact that none of our referees have ever played football to any standard. This combined with the immense pressure they are under, and their preponderance to treat even the most senior pros like children means that they are increasingly being left behind by the modern game. Why oh why football doesn't follow rugby's lead for no dissent, miked up refs and video evidence for major decisions is beyond me. If you build in respect to the officials as part of the game, along with officials having to explain their decisions, greater consistancy will come as a result. Obviously football is a much faster game, so perhaps the linos or 4th officials can take greater responsibility. Either way the status quo leaves no-one happy and is a last desperate clinging on outmoded tastes in a game that has transormed so dramatically.
PS...Wigan do seem to be one of those teams that suffer with big decisions, so i do sympathise. Having said that, Arsenal have committed far, far less fouls than any other team in england, but yet enjoy one of the worst disciplinary records. While a fair few are due to petulance, even if you take this into the equation, and only include bookings for genuine fouls, Arsenal have by far the worst bookings to fouls ratio in the top division. This is despite having 1 ball winner, no hard men, and no one with a previously bad disciplinary record before this year. So we can all have our conspiracy theories!
Oh and for a team generally full of decent honest pros, that Lee McCulloch is a nasty bastard!
Smaller clubs can use time wasting tactic, but bigger club can't. Point noted.
I entirely diagree with this article.
1) Notice how Paul Jewell didn't critise any of the arsenal players or staff, instead saving his wrath (rightly so) for the referee. Therefore to lose respect for Arsenal is totally unwarranted.
2) It was wrong for Henry to taunt Kirkland (again perhaps justifiably so- the goalkeeper's time wasting was laughable). But, non-arsenal fans will again jump on the criticise Henry bandwagon. Is childishly mocking C.Kirkland any worse than a showering a referee in expletitives, diving, cynical two-footed challenges, play-acting?? Acts, in my opinion, far worse than Henry's misdemenour but largely ignored by columns like this one. Get off Henry's back- and understand that a great player and wonderful ambassador for english football has some minor flaws.
All in all, understand that, no matter how unlucky the manner of the defeat, the opposing team doesn't have to cheat to gain the result. As in today's case- a combination of luck, and human error cost Wigan.
I hope they stay up though. Play some good stuff; and to see Paul Jewell squash himself into a shirt and suit is priceless.
Sounds a bit like sour grapes to me. Yes Henry was wrong, but it was heat of the moment - are you that much of a saint to say you've never in your life over reacted or given a bad response to a situation which you've later regretted? He attempted to appologise twice - a coward or cheat would have just run down the tunnel, happy with the three points - does that not count for anything? And yes, it was offside for the equaliser, but I think you'll find Adebayors' 'goal' was onside, what happened to the old mantra that 'these things even themselves out' Face it, you came close, did well, and were a bit unlucky. Fair enough your annoyed - but it happens to all of us. Don't be a bad loser.
Quite how Jewell can be annoyed with the referee is beyond me. I have never seen such a biased performance in my life. Kirkland's time-wasting was nothing short of a disgrace, and began from the first goal-kick...not, as you would have us believe, after you went 1-0 up! To book Lehmann for highlighting this blatant cheating is astounding. On another note, Heskey's dive was ridiculous. I for one hope you go down and stay down. Good on you Henry, good on you Lehmann and good on you Arsenal. You got your just desserts...maybe next time you'll think twice about cheating, but probably not. Come on Watford, West Ham and Charlton put these Northern pie-eating monkeys down for the good of English football!!!
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