Had to have a bit of a breather before posting after that game.
What a drama and what a disappointment at the end. I get where everyone is coming from with the "we can be proud, what a performance", but FFS I was absolutely spewing for 48 hours.
First, the penalty. Silly grab from Xhaka, wasn't needed as Silva was already diving like a moron when he did it. No complaints that a penalty was given, but what has me fuming about it, as always with VAR and the EPL, is the consistency. All of this season they've taken an attitude of going with the ref's on-field call as much as they can, and only going to VAR when it's such a clear miss that it's a no brainer. And I'm fine with that. It's almost like the old days again. I like the approach and I have not complained one single bit when quite a few penalties for us have been missed as it's always gone both ways - we've also been lucky on occasion as well.
But then we get this one day, where they decide that actually, we're going to bring this one back - it's the champions and they're losing, it's Xhaka who we know is always up for a foul, so lets find an angle. That sounds cynical but what else can it be when they dismissed the Odegaard one so quickly in the very same match. Ederson got no touch there at all. I accepted it at the time, not a clear and obvious error, that's cool, but to then go back for Xhaka, my god.
And if they go back for that then they need to go back for Maguire's pull at old trafford, and many others I've seen this season.
Also, why do they go with this performance acting of having the ref go to the screen? It seemed logical when it was introduced, but now seeing it in practice, do they EVER go to the screen and go "thanks but actually, not enough evidence that I've made a clear error there, the call stays"?
No, never. As soon as he goes to that screen it's a penalty, every time. It's pointless - the VAR ref should just make the call if this is how they do it.
To the red... Gabriel, no complaints for me at all. It blimmin sucked but that's what we get with a young team, we just gotta suck it up. First yellow was apparently for nothing but he knows he's on one now, you just can't block someone off like that. Hopefully he learns from it.
In the end, I thought we deserved to win, a draw at the absolute worst, so for them to get a lucky one off a long ball at the end was pretty demoralising.
Yes a good performance, blah blah blah, but we've got 17 games left now, and a lot of them are difficult ones. Yes we are 4th but not really - Spurs can easily take us out with their games in hand. It will be very tough for us to get that spot from here, the Spurs game coming is huge and I'm not confident given Partey is gone to AFCON. If Spurs beat us it will be very very hard for us to finish above them, and I can't see us overtaking Chelsea or Liverpool.
Anyway, finish with some more positive chat then...
Ben White, how good is this guy looking??? Compliments Gabriel so well too.
Tomiyasu, is he challenging Ramsdale as our signing of the season??? He is immense, he's become so important for us.
After messing about with the forwards for such a long time, it feels like Arteta has nailed it now. Martinelli and Saka are completely at home on their respective sides. Odegaard is getting better all the time. Lacazette is doing a great job (but is the obvious area to improve with a big signing next year). Poor Smith-Rowe can't get in now, but it doesn't phase him, he just keeps scoring.