Out Gooned

November 2, 2026

Arsenal beat us not because they were better than us but because they were a bit cleverer. Their intention from the off was to con the referee with a player going to ground inside the first minute. Nothing wrong with him but it spoke volumes of what they were going to be like. The same thing happened again a few minutes later. In both cases the referee checked on the players well-being. Arsenal knew what they were doing, we knew what they were doing, our players knew what they were doing but Andy Madley, who, as a referee, has long left his better days behind him, seemingly didn’t. If the going got tough, Arsenal knew what to do. Yes, we should have had a penalty, maybe two but Madley was never going to give them and with Stuart Attwell on TV watch. He wasn’t going to lend a hand either. Also, their goal came from another bit of poor distribution from Ali whose ball skills have now deserted him. 90% of the time Arsenal went long. Maybe we should think about it. We didn’t manage a shot on target, good defending most of the time but from us, a bit naivety. Lessons for the learning, and I’m sure Andoni Iraola will have taken things on board. This team of our will improve but the boss needs a few more cards up his sleeve to make that improvement happen.