Kevin Holdridge's Blog

The blessed Arsene complains that “… we conceded the penalty after 11 minutes of stoppage time, when injury time was indicated to be eight minutes”. But, blaming the referee doesn’t wash – this time at least.  I thought referee Marriner had a good game. It was unwelcome and unnecessary, but he was entitled to run the match on for for 11 minutes given that the ball had been out of play for much of the announced 8 minutes of extra time (not least for our own penalty). Claiming the foul on Leiva shouldn’t have been a penalty is also a red herring. He may well have dived, but  Eboue should never have given him the opportunity, and it’s fair to say that our only strategy to score towards the desperate end of the game seemed to have been based on looking for a penalty. There was lots of passing but little sign of any idea about how to get the ball in the net.

So, another lead thrown away. Another sterile low or no score draw at home. Yes, we had chances and near misses. And we are 2nd in the League, so we must be pretty good! But, the accusation that the team lacks leadership and fibre becomes harder to dismiss with every game.  The counter-argument to the no-trophies complaint has always been about the beauty and quality of the performance. However, even that aspect has arguably deteriorated significantly in the 2nd half of the season.

It must be time for a reappraisal and a vigorous reshaping of the squad for next season.

We dropped two points after scoring our own penalty right at the end of the match.