Mr Bumble Was Right!

There is an oft-quoted phrase: 'The Law is an ass'. It is often attributed to a comment made by Mr Bumble, the beadle in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, although its origin is probably older than that. Anyway, I digress... but...

But as we quite clearly witnessed last night, the Law is indeed an ass. And whilst I'm obviously going to major on the unfortunate - and unjust - dismissal of David Luiz last night, by coincidence a very similar calamity also befell Southampton's Bednarek a couple of hours later. 

But here's my take on the match-changing events of first half injury time at Molineux. Firstly, it's worth noting that the incident that completely changed the course of the match occurred in the third minute of two minutes of injury time. These things can happen - as we know, the time held up on the board is a 'minimum', but it rarely runs over unless there is an injury or time-wasting - and there wasn't last night.

Now the incident: IFAB Law 12 states: 'Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area which denies an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offending player is cautioned if the offence was an attempt to play the ball; in all other circumstances (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball etc.) the offending player must be sent off.' So, technically, referee Pawson applied the letter of the Law in sending David Luiz off. In fact, he couldn't wait to get his red card out!

The question in my mind is 'Did Luiz instigate a challenge?' Well, no, he didn't. He was merely running back and completely inadvertently made a tiny connection with Willian Jose - either his knee or his heel - it's not 100% clear to be honest. In fact, Jose's boot instigates the contact with Luiz's knee! 

Look, it's a penalty. There's no getting round that. Accidental or otherwise, a goal-scoring opportunity had been denied. But according to the letter of the Law, if Luiz had slid in from three yards back and brought him down, he would merely have been booked. But, by doing nothing more than chase the forward down, he has been sent off. Similarly, Bednarek tried to pull out of his challenge on Martial and got a red card, but if he'd have gone through with it then it would have been a yellow. As for Arteta suggesting that Arsenal may appeal; well, by the letter of the (idiotic) Law there are no grounds to do so.

In my opinion, both red cards should be rescinded and the Law changed in the same way that a Law change was rushed through after the Manchester City goal against Aston Villa - the one where Rodri dispossessed Mings from behind/an offside position to set up Bernardo Silva's goal.

The thing is this: VAR is surely there to 'rule' on matters of fact, but it has been doing so much more than that. There are countless examples of VAR interpretation being incorrect and illogical. Poor Southampton had a goal disallowed last week because the black armbands they were wearing 'extended their sleeves'. Dier's so-called handball against Newcastle, when he was looking the other way, is another example. 

There are many examples of VAR taking several minutes to decide that parts of the body with which one is not permitted to score a goal make a man offside; an outstretched hand or even an armpit! As if English refereeing standards weren't poor enough! And lest we forget that this incident from Saturday was deemed not worthy of any action - either at the time or retrospectively...

Anyway, there's nothing much we can do about it but complain about the injustice of it all. So I'll move onto less contentious matters, and go back to pre-game, where crucially Bukayo Saka was fit enough to regain his place in the side, replacing Gabriel Martinelli. Arsenal were otherwise unchanged, with Kieran Tierney still out.

And so to the game. And Arsenal were frankly almost completely dominant from the first whistle. Saka hit the post from Partey's first minute chipped ball over the top of a clearly over-match Kilman. A sweeping move a few minutes later, started by the dominant Partey, saw Saka's low shot comfortably saved by Rui Patricio. And in the 9th minute Saka swept in a majestic right foot shot from Lacazette's cut back - unfortunately the Frenchman's right foot was partially offside, and the goal was disallowed.

Wolves' only threats were from the occasional corner, and Arsenal were all over them. Cedric had a shot blocked and Pepe another brilliantly palmed away by Patricio, before an excellent high press, some sleight of foot and a little bit of fortune led to the latter curling a right footed shot into the far corner to give Arsenal a very well-deserved lead. 

And Arsenal remained well on top, and could easily have been two or three goals ahead, right until what ought to have been the stroke of half-time. Whereupon... well, see above. Almost as an afterthought, I should mention that Neves buried the penalty with aplomb.

Shorn of a central defender, Arteta decided to withdraw the blameless Lacazette for Gabriel at half time. And as if Arsenal didn't have enough to recover from - losing a man in such unfortunate circumstances - just 4 minutes into the second half Moutinho let fly from almost 30 yards and found the top corner via the inside of the post. Unstoppable, but he wasn't properly pressed - that's what happens when you're a man short and having to readjust. 

From total dominance to 2-1 down, in just 4 minutes of play. Very unfortunate. And from then on Arsenal found it almost impossible to get back into the game, with Wolves using the pacy Traore as their main outlet. And then, on 72 minutes, a complete brain fade from Leno. Racing out of goal to prevent Traore from getting to Semedo's through ball, he misjudged the bounce and spin of the ball off the slick turf and only succeeded in punching the ball into touch - from miles outside his penalty area. Only he knows what he was thinking. Inevitable and totally uncontroversial red card; and then we were 9.

And now, of course, comes the next problem. Mat Ryan is injured - another recently signed player crocked before he can get anything going; how very Arsenal! - so that meant that it was Runarsson coming on for the last 20 minutes. The same keeper, you will recall, who threw a ball into his own net on his last appearance. Fortunately Wolves had 'declared' at this point, so he only had a couple of saves to make, but if Ryan doesn't recover then it'll be the Icelander who replaces Leno on Saturday. Jack Grealish and the entire Villa side will be licking their lips!

Bizarrely, Arsenal somehow managed to conjure an injury-time chance, but first Aubameyang and then Saka had their shots blocked. And that was that. Frustrating, and extremely unjust, and the conspiracy theorists will be out again. Let's just hope that this doesn't knock the players' confidence.

I'll just quickly recap the Transfer Window. We've seen Kolasinac loaned out, along with Saliba, and contracts cancelled left, right and centre. The end of the line for Ozil (sob!), Sokratis and Mustafi. We also saw Willock and AMN go out on loan to Newcastle and West Brom respectively. Good luck to them. What's going on with Reiss Nelson, however, I wish I knew.

I'll be back on Monday. Hopefully with better news. Stay safe :)