Dowd's a tit but we must four-get the negatives.

Morning Gooners.


Right. I had the joy of playing some poker on Saturday night with some mates. Most of these mates are Gooners but also included some Man Utd fans. As we arrived we instantly came to a gentleman's agreement to not mention the day's football, but when we obviously failed we ended our depressing thoughts of the day's activities with all agreeing quite simply that last weekend just did not happen.

I wish I could keep with that agreement but every now and then I get a glimpse of the disappointment, frustration and anger that I felt when that fourth Newcastle goal flew into Szczesny's net.

I cannot and more importantly will not show the same restraint as our manager and players and refrain from mentioning the ludicrously inept refereeing by the self loving, self important gnome that is Phil Dowd. His performance was pathetic and before you start bitching that it's a pressure job, I don't know how hard it is etc etc, I'll point out firstly that I am a qualified and active football referee. Secondly Mr Dowd is apparently in the top percentile of his profession so I do not care how much pressure you are under at work, if you can't take it, don't do the job.

Our game fell apart once Diaby got sent off. I am not saying that the red card was not deserved, Diaby's actions were reckless and stupid, However, again my annoyance is two fold, firstly Barton's challenge was reckless and excessive and it was at least worthy of a yellow card but again it does not allow Diaby to do what he did but my second point is this, can someone please for the love of all that is holy explain to me how Kevin Nolan putting Szczesny in a headlock after Toon's first penalty is not as much of a red card as Diaby's? also how did the whole thing end in Szczesny getting booked? lets not forget Nolan's push in Diaby's chest before the Frenchman was sent off which again was worthy of at least a yellow.

All my bitching can't be reserved for Dowd though. The second Newcastle penalty was given by the linesman and I am still trying to find the law of the game that means a penalty can be conceded with making absolutely no contact.

Arsenal have failed to win a single game under the supervision of Dowd this year and he was also the referee in the games we collapsed against Spurs and  Wigan. Also in the four games under his completely unbiased eye he has shown 10 yellow and 2 red cards to Arsenal players compared to 7 yellow and 0 reds to our opponents. Do not tell me this is pure coincidence. There have been reports circulating today that Interpol will be investigating the game for match fixing, in particular Phil Dowd and ....... wait for this............. Rosicky! I'm not going to fuel these rumours but the first report I read with a translation of the French press was on Gooner talk and you can read it here.

Even after everything we suffered on Saturday the worst bit of it for me was the injury to Djourou. The young Swiss defender has really grown this year and in my opinion has surely become first choice to partner Vermaelen when he returns. There has been no official news at the time I'm writing this but I'm sure we'll read a report today on Arsenal.com telling us he'll be out for around three weeks which of course will mean he'll miss the first Barca game. Get fit quick Johan, we need you.

OK, here comes the 'but'. We were 4-0 up and in complete control of the game. Diaby's red card hurt us as we didn't have a natural DM to see out the rest of the game and Djourou's injury was disastrous as (please correct me if I'm wrong) but we have failed to win a league game that our centre back partnership was Koscielny/Squillaci BUT the players we have and the quality they have should not be letting that lead slip. We were not strong enough, we did not concentrate enough and we let Newcastle back into the game. That second half performance cannot be excepted and certainly  not repeated if we have any desire to win anything in the coming years.

Despite everything I've just written I consider myself one of the most positive Arsenal fans in the world so I will try to spread that positivity to you guys in a vain attempt to make you feel better about the weekend. The message is this, you must ignore the fact that we were 4-0 in half an hour and although it felt like a defeat please remember we won a point which is one more than either Man Utd or Chelsea achieved. We have finished the weekend 6 points ahead of Chelsea, one point ahead of City with a game in hand and now only four points behind a Utd we are still to play at Ashburton Grove, play Chelsea - twice, Man City and away to Liverpool who seem to have found some form and hunger so if we beat them when they come to our place, Utd will still have to take maximum points from the other games above and I'm sorry but I just can't see that happening.

Utd's next four games are City (h), Wigan (a), Chelsea (a) and Liverpool (a). In that time we play a game less because of the Cup final but we play Wolves, Stoke and Sunderland all at home. By the time these games are completed I believe we will be within 3 points off them and if we go into the United game at the end of April knowing a win will put us top (or keep us top) then I have every faith that we will take that opportunity with both hands and after that we will have 3 games to hold on to that lead before we can be crowned champions.

OK, now hopefully you're all feeling a little better about things and can look forward to our next game but just in case I'll end today's blog by sharing some more of the silver lining, as pointed out by Ladyarse on twitter. We conceded four goals and not a single one of them was down to a goalkeeping error.

Till next time,
Goonerfish.