English Football Season 2025-2026. Here we go again.

After weeks of games ending 10-8, yes.

Strict laws like that might be applicable in European leagues which are much less physical but you’re asking English leagues to transition to that and I think it’s unreasonable to demand that people who’ve been playing a certain way all their lives to suddenly switch.

If you’re arguing instead for a cultural change from grass roots up, then ok, but I don’t think you’d have much support for it. Inselaffen, innit?

remember your picks from the glory days of fat and blokes, you were always really good and finding inefficient markets to exploit, glad to see you're still getting it 😀

Decision was obviously far from terrible but I refuse to believe you don’t give a toss about being safe.

Just say “thank you Arsenal” for bailing you out.

You’re welcome.

Yes? Holding a goalie’s arm????

I mean it's absolutely a foul imo.

Football has a way of throwing up these insane moments - Fernandes puts away the chance just before Trossard scores and completely different conversation.

Brutal for West Ham lol

Burnley you have the chance to do the funniest thing

lol.

Yeah Rice is holding Mavropanos, but that is after the foul on Raya I think, so has to be a free kick to Arsenal.

I've no idea how they ****ing sort this mess out next year

Its a foul on Raya, and yes multiple arsenal players made fouls too
But when there are multiple fouls in the box the referee pretty much always takes the easy route and whistles for an attacking foul. Otherwise we would see a penalty almost each corner.

Defenders get away with more pulling and grappling than attackers. And goalkeepers are even more a protected species.

And although I personally dislike this kind of safe refereeing its always been this way.
So yes i think it would be the same the other way around, and I am not an arsenal supporter

Yeah I definitely do, I mean Raya is fouled twice, huge moment.

While obviously better for Spurs I had NO IDEA what I was feeling at any point during the game, my emotional reaction to the Raya save, the Trossard goal, the Wilson goal and subsequent disallowing had no sense of rhyme or reason to it, like I sort of celebrated and commiserated in pure intense form at all times lol.

Excited for us to get dicked by Leeds u-20s tomorrow to let West Ham right back in.

Rice also fouls Summerville beforehand, which is quite the achievement.

Right - so what’s the big deal?

It’s the same sport. I’m asking for the rules to be applied consistently. Sorry if that means thw fouling pioneered by Mourinho and perfected by Arteta need to end.

I think we should get a second VAR that VARs the original VAR decision.

Sure checks would take a bit longer, but it would only intervene at clear and obvious errors only 😉

You’d see a penalty each corner until everyone worked out you can’t foul unpunished any more. It would take about a week.

This is the same way it got out of hand. If my foul is only called every 150th time at corners, you bet your ass I'm going to rugby tackle each and every time. Now other teams have stepped their game up, but it is going in the wrong direction...but also not convinced a huge countershift to the completely other direction would solve this issue as then I think we would see players going down in the box every corner hoping to get a pen.

Same for goalkeepers how many have been sent off for time wasting? Oooooh you got a yellow at the 52nd minute - thin ice now etc...never getting a 2nd yellow and everyone knows it.

Same for City cheating their way to countless titles shitting on all rules as they very well know nothing will get to them - its been what 5(?) years. Everyone else have been docked points / monetary fines / transfer bans. Not that a transfer ban would hurt this City squad.

Anyways I agree that it would take a really short time to adjust the same way we have adjusted to this. We were bullied at every set-piece for years and Lego Pep figured out that you can use this in the most heinous of ways. It would be a weird few weeks.

I know this has been overshadowed by VARring the **** out of the game's end. But some great management from Lego Pep yesterday. I often criticize him for not taking action in time, but he realized the Riceback situation quickly.

Then also realized that Zubimendi was so utterly shite that he subbed his sub. Then the introduction of Havertz made the game lively - Odegaard / Havertz were on another level.

Not sure what is going on with Zubi / Eze in these last couple of weeks, but they have been well off the mark. Eze has been a real disappointment for me throughout the season, honestly.

He was surely worth the £65 million just for scoring 15 goals in 2 games against Spurs though?

He has also scored a few other game changing goals (although potentially not as many as hoped). I assume Zubi is just gassed, has played the most amount of minutes for any outfield player in the world this season (probably).

Odegaard and Havertz have had their fair share of poor games. Normally there are 'valid' reasons (back from injury etc.) but this is the major benefit of our ridiculous squad; in just about every past season injuries or drop off in form would have ended our season in March/April where as this season we march on.

Maybe I had larger expectations. For whatever reason I've watched more Palace games last season and the way he controlled the tempo, the flow and the goals he scored - I thought he was going to be an amazing star in this team.

In this system it could be harder to play and be efficient when you are constantly closing up shop and really big on ball control. Not sure.

Which is a good thing right. At least in my book.
I think most players are a bit too stubborn to fix it in a week, but yes it will over soon.

Its quite easy in my book. Almost every grappling offence you see at a corner would be a 100% foul if its done in the midfield. So just apply the rules and blow the whistle.
If its a grappling offence in midfield, its also one in the 16 year box.
The distinction is made by referees and players just follow and act accordingly, for which you cant blame them.

I think it was a foul on Raya btw, my problem with it is that Arsenal have scored loads of goals like that this season. Blocking ppl, holding ppl etc. It's called a foul for them but not against them.

They're not comparable situations though. It's not like we don't see 5+ fouls being committed every single corner by both the defenders and attackers. It would take 5 min of VAR EVERY corner to determine who made the first foul.

Hate to be that guy, but nobody is holding on to Martinez' arm. Not the same offense at all.

Not denying we got away with some close ones this season, but the uproar about yesterdays decision is laughable. Especially when it's less than a week after we watched Bernardo Silva slam someone into the turf and no pen was given there.

PGMOL had 2 title deciding apologies issued to us last season. They forgot to draw lines with a clear offside and another ridiculous one.

I'll take the apology going the other way this year.

Yep I agree, this definitely was happening in other directions in previous seasons. Not entirely sure what’s going on.

It's a contact sport and there will be a lot of grey areas where one person will see a hold and another person will call it normal contact when competing for position at set pieces.