Morning all, and welcome to Friday.
As we play Newcastle tomorrow, the manager’s press conference took place yesterday and in terms of the team news, there really isn’t any. Tomas Rosicky might return to the squad after a bout of illness. Other than that there’s nobody banjaxed from the midweek exertions against Monaco, the likes of Debuchy, Arteta and Oxlade-Chamberlain are still sidelined, and that’s about that.
Not terribly exciting, but then it’s a bit like no news being good news. We’re reaching the stage where even relatively minor injuries can be enough to end somebody’s season, so the less we have to talk about in that regard, the better.
The biggest ‘story’ of the presser was the manager’s call, once more, for the away goals rule to be changed or, even better, scrapped entirely. It seems self-evident that when a certain rule affects you that’s when you talk about it, however many view it as Arsene Wenger using it as an excuse. The truth is that he’s been unequivocal about why we went out of Europe – it was our first leg performance, the late goal, and not taking enough of the chances we created in the two legs.
Of course when you talk about this after you go out on away goals, people accuse you of sour grapes, but if they can’t see there’s a genuine discussion to be had about this rule then that’s their problem. It’s a pain to have to qualify again that nobody is blaming anything but our own ineptitude in the tie against Monaco, but there you go.
The other thing to point out is that he didn’t summon the members of the press specifically so he could rant and rave about the away goals rule. He was asked about it at a pre-arranged press conference because it was relevant to what happened to Arsenal this week, and he gave his answer:
It’s a rule that is outdated now and has to be changed. I’ve fought for that for a long time. It should count maybe after extra time because this rule was created in the sixties to encourage teams to attack away from home. Since then football has changed. The weight of the away goal is too big today.
I think it’s one of the most ridiculous rules in football. A goal should count as one goal, the location of where the goal is scored ought to be irrelevant. The idea that it promotes attacking football is a fallacy too because it makes conceding at home so costly. Even look at our situation, Monaco had no attacking intent on Tuesday – and why would they? They knew the onus was on us after messing up in the first leg so they could sit back and defend.
Here’s Jack Wilshere talking ahead of Bayern Munich at home last season:
If it is 0-0 at home we still have a big chance of qualifying, because the away goal is massive, especially in this competition when it comes to these big games.
Ok, the idea of us playing out a 0-0 at home is kinda ludicrous, but it does illustrate the fact it’s a good result for the team playing at home in the first leg. Does that then make it more likely the away team will play an attacking game? I’m not sure it does.
Here’s Wenger from December 2013:
I have asked for UEFA to cancel the away goals. Sometimes I think there is a counter-effect as teams play at home not to concede goals. At home the first thing managers say is let’s not concede goals.
There are those who suggest that a goal scored away from home is more difficult, and therefore worth more when it comes to deciding a tie. A few people on Twitter yesterday questioned whether or not an arbitrary reward also should be given to keeping a clean sheet on your travels. It’s a reasonable question in the context of this discussion.
My personal preference would be to settle games via a penalty shoot-out. Critics of that complain that it’s a lottery, when it’s anything but. It’s a test of skill, character and nerve in a high pressure situation. It’s an exciting and fair way to decide a game that has ended when both teams have scored the same amount of goals and can’t be separated after extra-time.
It means games are won or lost by what players do with a ball. This is football. Not geographyball. If you fail from 12 yards, that’s on you, rather than an archaic ruling based on whose name came out of the hat first. I’d like to see it scrapped altogether, I doubt that it will be though because organisations that think it’s a good idea to have a World Cup in the winter in the desert can’t really be trusted to do the right thing for the game.
Right then, time for the Arsecast and on this week’s show I chat with Philippe Auclair about the Champions League exit, how we might make progress in Europe, our current form, the away goals rule and more. And there’s the usual waffle as we look ahead to a game against Newcastle which is followed by an untimely Interlull.
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Right, that’s that. News throughout the day on Arseblog News, The Gent should be here later on, and we’ll be here to preview, live blog and all the rest for Newcastle tomorrow.
Until then have a good one.
