"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
Unfortunately the FIFA Laws of the Game when taken literally mean the offence was a penalty in that it was a direct free kick offence which occurred in the penalty box.
The fact it then results in an almost definite goal is of course *******s but it’s no less silly than the same outcome resulting from Ramsey being pushed over in the box at Burnley. This one in fact is even more fúcking stupid when you see the amount of pushing and pulling that goes on at almost every corner kick in every match every weekend.
I don’t think many, certainly less (or fewer), would have cared about the call on Wednesday night had it not happened 3 days after Dean @ West Brom.
The laws of the game are a bit of a *******s but we like them when it goes in our favour and decry them when not.
But it's certainly böllocks that you can chop a guy down when he's through on goal in one place and - while you will probably get a red card - there's only a slim chance they'll score from the resulting free-kick, but do it just in the box and it's a near-certain goal? That just makes no sense. I'd argue there's a good case for being able to award a penalty for certain offences wherever they occur on the pitch. Any straight red card offence should be a penalty imo - as should things you want to eliminate from the game like deliberate time-wasting, diving, etc.
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."