Conspiracy Theories Rool - OK

And so, another defeat. Opinions range from: 'We're cr*p; Arteta out!' through 'We didn't get the rub of the green - again', to 'We deserved to win the game and it's a conspiracy!'. And all of these views have some merit.

So to the bare facts of the game. And firstly, to our relief, Mat Ryan was passed fit to start in the enforced absence of Bernd Leno. Elsewhere, the only other change was Gabriel for the equally suspended Luiz. I'd sort of expected a rest for ESR, perhaps, and a start for Martin Odegaard, but Arteta chose not to tinker. Aubameyang remained on the bench.

Regrettably, the first thing that Ryan had to do was pick the ball out of the net. A poor pass from Cedric on the left corner of the penalty area caught Gabriel a little on his heels, Traore nipped in and crossed, and Watkins swept home via a deflection off of Holding (who might have been a little closer to him, I suppose - but 87.265% of the blame goes to Cedric for this one). An appalling start, in just the second minute.

I immediately noted, by the way, that from that very moment Villa started to waste time. They took just a little too long for my liking over every single restart, but referee Kavanagh didn't seem to notice. Perhaps it was my imagination, and I suppose that every second counts when you're losing. I also noted that Ryan didn't touch the ball again until the 21st minute.

It also occurred to me that most other sides in the Premier League are simply more 'professional' than Arsenal - by that I mean pragmatic, or cynical if you like. I see it in almost every Premier League game I watch. Maybe Arsenal are clinging a little too much to the old Corinthian spirit; more general fair play than many other sides. Alternatively, I may just be rambling...

Anyway, time-wasting aside the game settled down into end-to-end stuff, with Arsenal generally moving forward with purpose but unable to break through the Villa rearguard, and almost everything Villa did going through Grealish. The England international is, as we all know, 'the most fouled player in the Premier League', and that's hardly a surprise when you watch him go to ground at the slightest contact. Talented and skilful he may be - and in spades! - but I find it all a little bit unedifying.

Arsenal were not at their fluent best in this game. Lacazette looked to be dropping a little too deep at times, and Pepe was having one of his 'headless chicken' days - constantly in the wrong place at the right time. Laca, nonetheless, once or twice almost released Saka through on goal. Almost...

On the half hour, Xhaka's direct free kick - awarded due to a foul on Saka by 'the most fouled player' - was headed for the very top corner, but Martinez quite superbly tipped it wide of the upright.  In a statistical anomaly, which BT Sport were delighted to point out, Xhaka's effort was somehow Arsenal's only shot on target in what was in fact a very even and quite entertaining half of football.

Almost immediately, a clever turn in the area by Traore set him free on goal, but Ryan read his attempted chip. And then came the first moment of controversy. Holding's long clearance was flicked on by Lacazette, and Saka was in a foot race with Konsa. The Villa defender brought him down at the second or third attempt, thus denying Saka a clear run on goal - admittedly 30 yards out, but nobody was getting to him. A red for me, but not for Kavanagh, and VAR took a mere cursory look. But Targett wasn't getting there, was he?

Minutes later, Nkamaba became the second Villa player to be booked for an assault on Saka, who was being fouled in rotation at this point.

The free flow to the game continued into the second half, with both teams looking likely at different times. The best chances fell to Watkins at one end, and Pepe at the other. And amidst all that, from a wicked Saka corner, Lacazette was penalised for a foul. Because, apparently, it's an offence to have your shirt almost pulled off in the six yard box? Here's a close up view of Lacazette fouling Martinez...

Aubameyang replaced the angry Lacazette, and soon after Odegaard replaced... not ESR, but Cedric; thus sending Saka back to left back - as Arteta went for broke. Soon after came the worrying sight of Partey coming off with what looked like a recurrence of his thigh injury. This is as bad news as the result! 

And much to most people's chagrin he was replaced not by Martinelli, but by Willian. And whilst pretty much dominating from then on, with the exception of a chance from which Odegaard should have done much better there was little to worry Martinez.

And so to talking points, and they're fairly clear and obvious to me:

1.    Arsenal are really missing Kieran Tierney. Cedric is half the player he is; he fails to offer anything like as much as the Scot either in defence or attack, and on this day I'm pretty sure he doesn't make the mistake that Cedric made for the goal

2.    I'm veering somewhere in between 'We didn't get the rub of the green - again'' and 'We deserved to win the game and it's a conspiracy!'. On another day, Villa may have gone down to 10 men, and Martinez's tug on Laca would have yielded a penalty. I simply cannot accept that it's a conspiracy, for all that we get a lot less of the rub of the green on VAR than many other clubs I could mention. I merely put it down to the diabolically low standards of refereeing in England. After all, did we not have another example of that with the Soucek/Mitrovic incident?

What I would say is that I can think of many, many more instances where Arsenal have suffered via VAR than been helped by it - and I'm sure that there must be some figures somewhere. Instances where almost identical incidents have led to different outcomes when an Arsenal player is adjudged the offender than the other way round. If I can locate enough information, I'll do a piece on it.

The whole concept of VAR needs a hell of a lot more work, and the sooner the Technical Director of FIFA (whoever he may be) can give better guidance on many aspects of its use in conjunction with Referee supremo Collina, the better.

For me, I'd rather go back to simple human error and put the whole thing on hold. 

But I'd also like to see Law changes regarding 'initiating contact', with the threat of retrospective bans for players for duping officials by dangling a leg, or exaggerating a dive. That's going back to my point on 'professionalism' - the game is too sanitised these days, and collisions that a few years ago wouldn't have raised an eyebrow are now pored over again and again. And every time a pundit says 'Such-and-such player was clever there...', my life shortens by a month. Because its football, Jim, but not as we know it

3.    As for Arteta's claim that Arsenal 'once more dominated the game' and deserved to win', I think that there is an element of deflection here. He didn't have his finest hour on Saturday; he shuffled his pack all wrong maybe three times - moving Saka to left back, over-crowding the side with number 10s, and bringing on the totally ineffective Willian when Martinelli was surely the better option. 

As I mentioned at the top of this post, there are some calls for Arteta's head, and he doesn't help himself with such muddled thinking. Nonetheless, it'll take a lot more for him to go any time soon, as Arsenal are too invested in him at the moment - we can't behave like Chelsea because we simply don't have the funds available to do so.

However, this particular tirade was borne out of frustration. Because the fixture list over the next month is really tricky and could see the side cut well adrift from any chance of European qualification. It's Leeds (H), Benfica in the Europa League sandwiching Manchester City (H); then Leicester (A), Burnley (A), Tottenham (H), West Ham (A) and Liverpool (H). Ouch!

Anyway, until next week... 

Stay safe.