Premier League 2025/26 Thread

[Deeg67]

This conspiracy stuff is - as usual - hilariously far-fetched. Even assuming the PL is out to deny Man City the title (which is absurd on the face of it), the foul on Raya was clear and obvious. It did take VAR too long but not because the Raya infraction wasn't obvious - it was the number of other fouls being committed at the same time.

 

I'd rather they take an extra 60-90 seconds or whatever and get it right than rush to try and meet some arbitrary time limit and get it wrong. I'm no Gunners fan by any stretch but sadly, that was the right decision.

Edited 11 May by Deeg67

[Dan]

8 hours ago, Nalis said:

Man U getting numerous dodgy penalty decisions to help them beat us to 4th in 2020 is the hill I will die on 

That Fernandes penalty against Villa. That's the one time I remember just turning a game off in disgust at a decision.

[StanSP]

31 minutes ago, Dan said:

That Fernandes penalty against Villa. That's the one time I remember just turning a game off in disgust at a decision.

Is that when he stepped on the players leg and then conned the ref feigning injury? 

[Nalis]

2 hours ago, Deeg67 said:

This conspiracy stuff is - as usual - hilariously far-fetched. Even assuming the PL is out to deny Man City the title (which is absurd on the face of it), the foul on Raya was clear and obvious. It did take VAR too long but not because the Raya infraction wasn't obvious - it was the number of other fouls being committed at the same time.

 

I'd rather they take an extra 60-90 seconds or whatever and get it right than rush to try and meet some arbitrary time limit and get it wrong. I'm no Gunners fan by any stretch but sadly, that was the right decision.

For me the issue isnt about the decision, it was that it was pretty obvious and should have been called a lot sooner.

 

And also that Arsenal have been grappling with players in the box and getting away with it more than most teams all season

[Jimothy]

2 hours ago, Deeg67 said:

This conspiracy stuff is - as usual - hilariously far-fetched. Even assuming the PL is out to deny Man City the title (which is absurd on the face of it), the foul on Raya was clear and obvious. It did take VAR too long but not because the Raya infraction wasn't obvious - it was the number of other fouls being committed at the same time.

 

I'd rather they take an extra 60-90 seconds or whatever and get it right than rush to try and meet some arbitrary time limit and get it wrong. I'm no Gunners fan by any stretch but sadly, that was the right decision.

Maybe it's just my definition of what clear and obvious should mean, but whilst I know what you are saying about looking at numerous fouls, surely clear and obvious should be something you can reasonably expect the referee to spot, and easily spot after a couple of replays. If you have to watch it over 10 times, start looking at 3 or 4 different incidents, spend ages trying to determine which foul occurred first by slowing it down to frame by frame, then surely it's not clear and obvious. It's not something you'd reasonably expect the referee to spot with the naked eye.

[Trent Steel]

They did that to a: make surre arsenal wim the league. B: keeps spurs up.....

Now onto tonight i am.not surw who i want to win hate both of them equally

 

[VinceNoir]

Correct decision or not, it's a goal that pretty much sums up everything I dislike about top-tier English football at the moment. 

 

Almost every single player crowding the box, everyone's pushing and shoving and it's followed by a contentious decision that takes 6 minutes to reach. And that's not even the end of it. Then you get experts, pundits, everyone and anyone on X zooming in on still images, finding all sorts of slo-mo angles, pixelated clips, and other clips to show the inconsistency not only this season but also going back to previous seasons. And it's the same week after week. It does my head in.

 

I know football has always been a physical sport, but for me, it's reached a point where the physical grappling followed by the micro analysis of every tiny detail has become a bigger talking point than the actual high-quality football. It's why the first leg of PSG-Bayern was so refreshing to watch. I really miss watching players like Fabregas, Silva, De Bruyne, Hazard etc. lighting up the PL. 

[Dan]

1 hour ago, StanSP said:

Is that when he stepped on the players leg and then conned the ref feigning injury? 

That's the one. I knew they were getting some soft decisions but I went on a bit of a mad one on here about it being corrupt. I still don't entirely retract it either

 

 

[Dan]

23 minutes ago, VinceNoir said:

Correct decision or not, it's a goal that pretty much sums up everything I dislike about top-tier English football at the moment. 

 

Almost every single player crowding the box, everyone's pushing and shoving and it's followed by a contentious decision that takes 6 minutes to reach. And that's not even the end of it. Then you get experts, pundits, everyone and anyone on X zooming in on still images, finding all sorts of slo-mo angles, pixelated clips, and other clips to show the inconsistency not only this season but also going back to previous seasons. And it's the same week after week. It does my head in.

 

I know football has always been a physical sport, but for me, it's reached a point where the physical grappling followed by the micro analysis of every tiny detail has become a bigger talking point than the actual high-quality football. It's why the first leg of PSG-Bayern was so refreshing to watch. I really miss watching players like Fabregas, Silva, De Bruyne, Hazard etc. lighting up the PL. 

This is precisely what VAR encourages. The idea that it was going to clear up the controversy has been one of the worst calls of all time. It's done the exact opposite.

 

This has been a terrible Premier League season. One of the worst of all time in terms of the actual football on the pitch. The majority of games are boring so Arsenal will be fitting winners. Do wonder if there will be an overcorrection to this in future though as I do think football is cyclical.

[Chelmofox]

1 hour ago, VinceNoir said:

Correct decision or not, it's a goal that pretty much sums up everything I dislike about top-tier English football at the moment. 

 

Almost every single player crowding the box, everyone's pushing and shoving and it's followed by a contentious decision that takes 6 minutes to reach. And that's not even the end of it. Then you get experts, pundits, everyone and anyone on X zooming in on still images, finding all sorts of slo-mo angles, pixelated clips, and other clips to show the inconsistency not only this season but also going back to previous seasons. And it's the same week after week. It does my head in.

 

I know football has always been a physical sport, but for me, it's reached a point where the physical grappling followed by the micro analysis of every tiny detail has become a bigger talking point than the actual high-quality football. It's why the first leg of PSG-Bayern was so refreshing to watch. I really miss watching players like Fabregas, Silva, De Bruyne, Hazard etc. lighting up the PL. 

The one that gets me is both arms around a player to block him running being acceptable. You see this, blocking movement and shirt pulls time and time again.  The reality is that if you follow what happened in this instance, most corners contain fouls. 

 

Maybe the correct decision is reached here, but in real time I actually think for a contact sport, in the last minute of a game, it's all pretty innocuous in a crowded box. Arms have to go somewhere and i dont think the foul on the keeper is deliberate, and there is a huge amount going on where one foul leads to another. Even though he is clearly a great keeper, i think Raya makes a complete hash of this. 

 

Personally, in this situation, I would rather we just went with the on field decision and if the ref blew for a foul I wouldn't mind at all. Its one made worse by slowing down replays and analysing from every angle. If we are going to do that here then we should be calling fouls for every scenario like this. 

 

 

[RowlattsFox]

I get the time thing with this one as it was a crucial decision and they did have to explore everything. 

 

Football needs to do something about the grappling from corners but how?

People will say just give free kicks but How do you decide which foul is the most worthy? and fans will soon complain about soft ones. 

 

Gone so far we might have to just have to get rid of corners  

[ForestAreMagic]

So, this decision benefitted us, and I think the foul on Raya was clear and obvious.   But Trossard is fouling WH number 25, just as obviously,  and this is the first offence.  Ref should either ignore all of it, or worst case call it back for a WH penalty.  

[Super_horns]

As ever from a set play was quite a mess but keepers do get protected more than anyone else .

Either way someone wasn’t going to be happy and VAR has only added to the controversy and debate .

[st albans fox]

27 minutes ago, ForestAreMagic said:

So, this decision benefitted us, and I think the foul on Raya was clear and obvious.   But Trossard is fouling WH number 25, just as obviously,  and this is the first offence.  Ref should either ignore all of it, or worst case call it back for a WH penalty.  

That would have been fun

disallow the goal for one offence and then award a penalty for one which began before it. 
arsenal would surely have no argument and it would have been more just than what we ended up with. 

[Jattdogg]

Var should have a 1 minute timer max.

 

If you can't figure it out during that time, it's not clear and obvious to the ref's.

 

All video and audio discussions of decisions should be recorded and made available to the public immediately.

 

[Nalis]

1 hour ago, ForestAreMagic said:

So, this decision benefitted us, and I think the foul on Raya was clear and obvious.   But Trossard is fouling WH number 25, just as obviously,  and this is the first offence.  Ref should either ignore all of it, or worst case call it back for a WH penalty.  

Would be worth it solely to watch their fans implode and go full Matt Le Tissier on social media

[Jimothy]

28 minutes ago, Jattdogg said:

Var should have a 1 minute timer max.

 

If you can't figure it out during that time, it's not clear and obvious to the ref's.

 

All video and audio discussions of decisions should be recorded and made available to the public immediately.

 

I think this is fair. People have mentioned earlier about looking at various incidents, but as you say, if they need to do that, was it clear and obvious to the referee.

 

VAR either needs to completely rereferee the game or it needs to take a quick look to see if there's anything obvious. Right now it's trying to do both and not working.

[Super_horns]

38 minutes ago, Jattdogg said:

Var should have a 1 minute timer max.

 

If you can't figure it out during that time, it's not clear and obvious to the ref's.

 

All video and audio discussions of decisions should be recorded and made available to the public immediately.

 

The commentators seem to hear it all so why not fans?

 

Maybe but then people will probably say the officials had to rush their decision or didn’t look at it properly.

 

Unfortunately VAR hasn’t really done anything bit muddy the waters more with its inconsistency and subjective nature .

[st albans fox]

34 minutes ago, Jattdogg said:

Var should have a 1 minute timer max.

 

If you can't figure it out during that time, it's not clear and obvious to the ref's.

 

All video and audio discussions of decisions should be recorded and made available to the public immediately.

 

Some incidents are more complicated 

what if there was also a possible offside when Wilson shot ? 

the var has to look at the arm across and grab, the shirt holding by todibo, the various offences committed by arsenal players to see if they happened before the foul on raya,  

if you apply a time limit then you’re going to potentially see the var making big mistakes (yeah I know we’ve already seen that happen before). 
 

[BillyFOX12]

[st albans fox]

Fast start for spurs and should be a comfortable evening (unfortunately) 

[Fear Of The Fox]

It's absolutely ridiculous the last 3 fixtures (at least) of the season aren't played at the same date and time. 

[Jaspa]

1 minute ago, Fear Of The Fox said:

It's absolutely ridiculous the last 3 fixtures (at least) of the season aren't played at the same date and time. 

More idle fans to watch a game if there's only 1 or a few on in an evening. Sponsors happy, advertisers happy, bookies happy... fans? Who cares. Wider football happy just to have something on.

[PhillippaT]

Ooh.

[StanSP]

Tel and Kolo Muani are absolute dog turd.