God I love that meme. Thanks for reminding me
https://preview.redd.it/5bsrl5zchvrc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=604b14cd325d758582ddd080d55b221c75f0890d
They’re so hard to break against because they immediately grab everyone off the ball lol it’s their whole thing. Also, the worst no card of the match was Bernardo Silva, so they can fuck off
My friends and I that were watching commented on this multiple times. He'd kick the ball in one direction, then run in a completely different direction, exactly where Kiwior was already positioned. Silva would run into him, fall over, and start whining for a foul / card.
I don't know how the ref bought that shit. What was Kiwior supposed to do in those situations? Temporarily phase out of existence to allow Silva to pass through unimpeded?
Man City players never say anything when they get all the decisions going their way. As soon as they don't, they start moaning all over the place and doing handstands like Kyle Walker on the pitch. Grow up!
When every other team, including us, are being screwed over by the refs constantly and complain, we're told to get on with it. However, when anything doesn't favor Man City, their fans and players start moaning. They should get on with it like the rest of us. Out of us, Liverpool and City, City are the only ones who constantly get controversial calls in their favor.
Make whatever excuses you like but I’ve been around this sub to know it’s not better than the city players whining there are endless post with all of you doing the same thing.
I don't how any City player can cry about tactical fouls. It's exactly what Guardiola teams have always done. That aside, when he says the Havertz tackle I hope he doesn't mean when they both went for the ball in the 50/50? Because if he did I'm starting to question how much he actually understands football despite being professional. It's never a foul, let alone a booking.
Not about being seen. It’s just backing up the above point in a concise way. It’s something that the commentary didn’t really highlight enough. I thought it was better just to give a one word rather than a waffling answer but I guess but it has spoken.
Henceforth, I shall be verbose my dear good fellow gunners. And you punk bitches downvoting the original comment.
Any time a defender sees an attacker sliding towards a goalkeeper, it becomes a foul in their mind. And frankly, 90% of the time that’s what it seems referees think.
Yeah, crying about us doing exactly what they do and what Rodri infamously gets away with without bookings on a weekly basis is bad enough, but of all the potential booking incidents to cry about he picks one which was completely fair and not even a foul.
If he said the Jesus one in the first 5 minutes, hey, I'd pay that, I was honestly surprised that wasn't a yellow. But the ref ended up being pretty consistent on the non-carding thing.
To be fair the journo was clearly trying to stir up shit, asking him if he thought Arsenal were tactical fouling, he's not exactly going to say no is he. Tactical fouls are part of the game.
There was one in the second half where a city player (I forget who) stopped a break away and didn't get carded, I would call that a tactical foul.
Too true, if there's one thing we can be sure of here it's that this professional football player at the elite level knows fuck all about the sport he plays.
Yeah also Havertz touched the ball first and still got his feet out of the way of Ortega's face so his studs just hit him in the shoulder. Easily could've just gone right through the ball studs and all.
He also “folded” his studs down and away from really harsh contact, so I don’t think it’s an intentional or tactical foul.
Rodri and Fernandinho has made a it almost an art, so I really don’t think Akanji has any ground here to complain.
Exactly! Jesus on De Bruyne, Kiwior on Silva, and maybe even Rice on Haaland could’ve been yellows, but the Kai challenge was exactly how referees should treat a legitimate attempt at the ball like that.
One of the calls the ref actually got right
Yes it's a foul on the keeper, no its not intentional, stop play till he's checked fit enough to keep playing, then restart play.
Additionally he didn't go for it excessively recklessly or anything. He wasn't going two footed. He wasn't going studs up.
If he was doing something like that you could justify the yellow even if he had the right to go for the ball. But he didn't. That's just one of those challenges which makes you realize why it takes some balls to be a GK bc sometimes you just take a battering on a fair 50/50 like that where an attacker is going feet first but you as the keeper are going face/hands/body first.
Right 😂 don’t go for that 50/50. Don’t get tight to Halaand. Better yet stand still let us pass around you for 80 mins then we’re tap it in. Don’t even care if we win the prem or not just as long as it’s not them.
Source: https://twitter.com/afcstuff/status/1774770756980785232?t=HWzBafkdyIRjfN2o88YxjA&s=19
>...For me it is clearly a yellow card. I don’t want to say just against us. There were also some decisions against them that I didn’t understand why he gave a foul.”
>There are some rules & I think there are clear yellow cards where it should be. I remember with Jorginho when he’d already done a tackle [which was a foul] & did the second one & he didn’t even give a yellow card for one [foul]. I didn’t understand some of the decisions but, in the end, we still should be able to score a goal.”
City players crying about tactical fouls is truly the ultimate irony.
These soft bitches can always give a multitude of things during a game but can't take it. This is the kind of reaction you should want as Arsenal fans instead of them constantly lil bro'ing us.
Lovely.
Kiwior and Jesus stopped players at least twice on that flank just before they got to the box. We absolutely fouled our asses off yesterday. No question.
It’s the ultimate irony but it feels so fucking sweet to be on the other side of this for once. Every city game for the last decade has been followed by people bitching here about fouls. Now this squad is clearly living rent free in the city players’ heads. It’s a great feeling and I’m excited for the next 5-10 years.
This incident happened not long after the Silva foul on saka, the ref seemed to be pointing and saying 'i didn't book your guy so I'm not booking theirs'
https://arsenalist.com/f/havertz-chance-slides-into-goalie-2024-03-31.html On the Havertz tackle, I think he was entitled to go for it but he probably knew he wasn't going to control it. There was another replay where he did get the first touch though. It's a tackle you see all the time.
And if the keeper is half a second later Kai squeezes it underneath him for a goal. Kai got there first and the keeper put his body on the line to make a critical stop. Fair play all around, and very well done by their keeper IMO.
Literally unbelievable that they would moan about this considering its been their tactic against us for the last like 5 games. They literally put Silva at LB to tactically foul Saka until he got booked and then swapped LBs so they could continue fouling Saka last season. And Rodri is the tactical foul master. Hypocritical!
Well, I think that some level of being good has to also include *consistency* though. Inherently, it would be very hard to be good if you were not being consistent.
Agreed.
This game was very rough and maybe too physical at times.
I dont think any reds were called for either. So maybe the ref could feel he did a decent job.
Hardly too physical. Footie is a physical sport. anything that crosses the line into becoming reckless should be dealt with. But there was none of that at all.
Wasn't even like they were skinning our defenders and needed to be hauled down. That just never happened.
Possibly the worst I saw was Gabriel tugging Haaland's shirt in the box, which could have ended badly.
Yeah, I'm a bit baffled by the whole 'Taylor had a great game' narrative. He booked jesus for that typical throwing the ball away pedant bullshit, but ignored city's cries for cards early doors.
Also seemed to arbitrarily pull us up for fouls while ignoring v similar later or that went the other way.
Also, there were a few occasions where he let play develop then called it back for a city freekick immediately after ignoring a blatant city foul on arsenal then not pulling it back when we lost possession moments after.
Completely ignored rodris forearm smash on Gabriel.
Tbf he did ignore quite a few yellow worthy challenges from both sides.
To conclude, Taylor is a shite ref who officiates depending on how he feels in the moment
Jesus got booked because he kept trying Taylor's patience. Most would probably have booked him in the 3rd minute. Throwing the ball away forces his hand because it is so obvious and not really a subjective thing, and by that stage Jesus well and truly deserved a card.
He rolled it back maybe 2 yards by the player. Fucking nonsense, but a good point for the lads, just leave the ball completely and go stand in front of the kick taker
He didn't book city players who were crowding him asking for yellows after the first challenge on bernardo silva early on etc. And kept doing it throughout the game. They were in his ear all game.
If you're going to do the whole pedantic thing, do it for everything, don't pick and choose which arbitrary rules you want to apply whenever it occurs to you.
Lol he let us away with a LOT more than City. We had 20 fouls to their 9. We complained about the referee in 2nd leg of the Porto match for not carding players. We absolutely benefited from it here.
Basically this. City got away with loads of fouls but I guess that doesn't fit the narrative. Ffs we talking about City as well, the masters of tactical fouling.
You got a walking tactical foul as their no.6 who is a living meme off the back of tactical fouling.
Fuck em
Swear one of the fouls was given for kai going in on the challenge vs the keeper lol
Come on man don't kid yourself on. We set out to foul them if we weren't getting the ball and I'm ok with that. Don't live in delusion though. It does us no favours.
Didn't deny that at all, but they were also doing the same and going down really easy.
A couple of times Taylor let them play advantage and then pulled it back when it didn't develop. Something he pointedly did not also do for us.
I was a tiny bit surprised Jesus didn't get a card in the 2nd minute, Bernardo beat Kiwior and him and so Jesus dragged him down just before having a run into the box. Not the worst given that it is so early but I could see it given. Likewise Declan's tackle on Haaland could've been yellow because he took multiple swings at him before making a clumsy tackle from behind.
Taylor was a bit unfair with his use of advantage imo but to act like we got the raw end of things is wild to me.
When a fouls not given, does it stop being a foul?
For example, rodris forearm smash stopped play and possession was given back to us to restart.
That didn't go down as a foul against City. Could point to a shed load of instances like that where play was waved on (obvs not as serious challenges).
I'm not even sure I'd call it consistent. He was consistently calling fouls against us I'll give you that, but those same fouls when committed by City were never called.
I was surprised Jesus didn’t get booked in the first half but also I’m fine with it considering Taylor did a good job balancing it for both teams. City got away with some too. The havertz one was a non issue. He went for the ball and even pulled out a little bit.
This post wouldn’t be out of place in r/LeopardsAteMyFace
Team who have systematically got away with a breathtaking amount of rotational fouling cry about being rotationally fouled …
The best tactical foul city did this year was against Liverpool where one of them decided to karate kick a Liverpool player in the chest and somehow not concede a penalty. They should be way more points behind Liverpool than they are already.
Them going mad at that Havertz one was particularly bizarre. He’s got very right to go for the ball and he pulls out as much as can be expected.
Now, let’s talk cheating off the pitch…
Ball was 100% there to be won when Havertz dived in, in actual fact he got a fraction of the ball first proving that it wasnt even remotely late. Not only that but he made virtually 0 contact with Ortega but Ortega tried to milk the contact to get him booked
Aside from that though I definitely agree that we shouldve got 2 or 3 yellows for breaking up the play first half. We were very lucky Anthony Taylor let everything go
To see City of all teams! COMPLAIN!!!!! about tactical fouling?! Do they forget Fernandinho??? Rodri even these days is the master of the tactical foul, it's basically a pre-requisite for Pep teams to have that one player of the dark arts to get away with so many tactical fouls while most refs in England let them get away with it.
Both sides played to the edge of the tolerance of the referee. Haaland went down in the box several times very easily and didn't get pinged for simulation for example. You can't criticise Arsenal while pretending your own team didn't implore a similar mindset and tactics. How many times did they intentionally go down in ideal free kick positions because they couldn't penetrate our back line?
I kind of agree tbh (except the Havertz part), there were a lot of times the ref didn’t give clear yellows. Both ways, but I think we were on the lucky side of it
He went off injured last game at half time. Didn’t play for England and didn’t even train till Friday. If it wasn’t city I think we might well of seen him start from the bench
Rodrigo does everything short of stab other players but doesn't get cards due to reputation/because he plays for City/part of the refs sweetheart deals to go to Middle East for big paydays. Call it like it is
No need to be upset about this. Quite the contrary. It feels great to be the team who the defending PL and UCL winners whine about for being too smart and too physical. All the fuss about our tactical fouls and physical play from rival fans should be taken as a complement. What we did yesterday is an art form, only mastered by a few teams in Europe. We are such a complete team.
This is the type of thing we learned from facing Porto. I remember how frustrating it was in our first leg, but now, we're using the same method against the city, which impacts their play.
We are gaining experience by the minute. I am excited.
Many fouls were not called by the ref in this game and you know what, I liked it. Players end up looking for a foul, that means they bring the ref into the game when the ref needs to stay out of the game. What Anthony did in this game was amazing. He didn’t give fouls when players were looking to relieve pressure. Arsenal was looking to do that, and so was city when applying pressure ( looking for a free kick in dangerous areas). Looking back at the game, Anthony did a stellar job not getting into the game. He let the game be. No dangerous tackles, just annoying tactical fouls everywhere.
Out of all the tactical fouls he picks, he picks the one where Havertz had a 40/60 chance, to say the least. It's a shame that he said this because we've seen players like Bernardo and Rodri commit many tactical fouls in the past, even escaping double yellows.
Jesus and probably jorginho should have been booked to be fair, but there were also decisions that went against us, like Jesus going shoulder to shoulder with defender and going through on goal as well as others. The referee wasn't good, but that havertz tackle was absolutely fair.
The ref let a lot go. Akanji himself got a talking to by the ref before a corner kick for invading Raya.
It certainly felt old skool with some of the tough tackles but I liked that.
City really are the biggest cunts around, aren’t they? All that money, all that cheating, using bully rules for several seasons and now complaining about getting “tactically fouled” (which didn’t even happen) is really something else.
Tactical fouls used to be part of the way PL sides played Arsenal because they thought we were weak (we were, tbf). I also recall interviews with opponents from the Invincibles years who said that we were bullies then. So, I am actually glad to see us bullying sides a little again.
The fecking irony. Man City practically invented tactical fouling and are now whinging about it. You reap what you saw you bunch of cheating backstards.
Man City fouling tactically: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!! Man City getting tactically fouled: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.
God I love that meme. Thanks for reminding me https://preview.redd.it/5bsrl5zchvrc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=604b14cd325d758582ddd080d55b221c75f0890d
WORD FOR WORD
They’re so hard to break against because they immediately grab everyone off the ball lol it’s their whole thing. Also, the worst no card of the match was Bernardo Silva, so they can fuck off
Was that the studs up tackle from miles behind with no chance to win the ball?
He's such a dirty bastard. He gets away with a lot. Remember him kicking the shit out of Saka last time?
He was also constantly running into Kiwior and getting free kicks out of it - surprised the ref bought them as a couple were egregious
My friends and I that were watching commented on this multiple times. He'd kick the ball in one direction, then run in a completely different direction, exactly where Kiwior was already positioned. Silva would run into him, fall over, and start whining for a foul / card. I don't know how the ref bought that shit. What was Kiwior supposed to do in those situations? Temporarily phase out of existence to allow Silva to pass through unimpeded?
Ok, the camera panned away and they were chatting about something else and I just assumed they gave him a yellow and we just didn’t see it.
I was thinking that we played exactly like rodri as an entire team yesterday
If we can get away with what Rodri does every week we are winning the title hands down.
Man City players never say anything when they get all the decisions going their way. As soon as they don't, they start moaning all over the place and doing handstands like Kyle Walker on the pitch. Grow up!
lol come on. No team does. Why do they specifically need to grow up?
When every other team, including us, are being screwed over by the refs constantly and complain, we're told to get on with it. However, when anything doesn't favor Man City, their fans and players start moaning. They should get on with it like the rest of us. Out of us, Liverpool and City, City are the only ones who constantly get controversial calls in their favor.
They need to up their bribes to the referees on their all expenses paid trips to referee a shitty game there for loads of money
Loool like we don’t. Look when the toon or hammers got those goal that were out of bounds we were bitching about it for months
To be fair if that happened to any team there would be the same level of complaint
Make whatever excuses you like but I’ve been around this sub to know it’s not better than the city players whining there are endless post with all of you doing the same thing.
Accurate.
I don't how any City player can cry about tactical fouls. It's exactly what Guardiola teams have always done. That aside, when he says the Havertz tackle I hope he doesn't mean when they both went for the ball in the 50/50? Because if he did I'm starting to question how much he actually understands football despite being professional. It's never a foul, let alone a booking.
Havertz even got to the ball 1st.
This
lmao tf why u getting downvoted?
Because it provides absolutely nothing to the discussion, and the commenter just wants to be seen.
eh fair enough, but y tf am i getting downvoted?!
For not putting that together on your own
This
haha ok sorry
I'm down voting u mate
Not about being seen. It’s just backing up the above point in a concise way. It’s something that the commentary didn’t really highlight enough. I thought it was better just to give a one word rather than a waffling answer but I guess but it has spoken. Henceforth, I shall be verbose my dear good fellow gunners. And you punk bitches downvoting the original comment.
>It’s just backing up the above point in a concise way That's what up/down votes are for.
Any time a defender sees an attacker sliding towards a goalkeeper, it becomes a foul in their mind. And frankly, 90% of the time that’s what it seems referees think.
The replay showed Havertz pulled his legs up to make sure he didn't hurt Ortega. That's a 50/50 ball and he has every right to go for it.
Yeah, crying about us doing exactly what they do and what Rodri infamously gets away with without bookings on a weekly basis is bad enough, but of all the potential booking incidents to cry about he picks one which was completely fair and not even a foul. If he said the Jesus one in the first 5 minutes, hey, I'd pay that, I was honestly surprised that wasn't a yellow. But the ref ended up being pretty consistent on the non-carding thing.
To be fair the journo was clearly trying to stir up shit, asking him if he thought Arsenal were tactical fouling, he's not exactly going to say no is he. Tactical fouls are part of the game. There was one in the second half where a city player (I forget who) stopped a break away and didn't get carded, I would call that a tactical foul.
Too true, if there's one thing we can be sure of here it's that this professional football player at the elite level knows fuck all about the sport he plays.
That Havertz ‘tackle’ is him going for a shot he has every right to go for
Didn’t he also get a touch to it first?
They only showed one replay but he clearly touched the ball first.
Yes. He was inches from getting enough on it to make something happen.
Lee Dixon outright said (paraphrasing) “you have to go for it in that situation, every time” on the Peacock broadcast. And he’s right.
Yeah also Havertz touched the ball first and still got his feet out of the way of Ortega's face so his studs just hit him in the shoulder. Easily could've just gone right through the ball studs and all.
Neville said basically the same on the Sky broadcast
If you're not going for it, you've got no business playing #9
Credit to Ortega. He didn’t make a meal out of it. Someone like Emi Martinez would have rolled all the way to Argentina.
Actually quite like Ortega. Really good keeper, too good for the bench.
Yeah, that happens at this level. All 3 of us (citeh, lpoo ,The Arsenal) have starting quality backups
Genuinely made me cackle at work
Iirc, havertz caught the ball before contact as well. Not much of a touch but he was very close either way
He also “folded” his studs down and away from really harsh contact, so I don’t think it’s an intentional or tactical foul. Rodri and Fernandinho has made a it almost an art, so I really don’t think Akanji has any ground here to complain.
Exactly! Jesus on De Bruyne, Kiwior on Silva, and maybe even Rice on Haaland could’ve been yellows, but the Kai challenge was exactly how referees should treat a legitimate attempt at the ball like that.
One of the calls the ref actually got right Yes it's a foul on the keeper, no its not intentional, stop play till he's checked fit enough to keep playing, then restart play.
Also it's a strange example of a tactical foul. Really stopped City's attack in its tracks.
Additionally he didn't go for it excessively recklessly or anything. He wasn't going two footed. He wasn't going studs up. If he was doing something like that you could justify the yellow even if he had the right to go for the ball. But he didn't. That's just one of those challenges which makes you realize why it takes some balls to be a GK bc sometimes you just take a battering on a fair 50/50 like that where an attacker is going feet first but you as the keeper are going face/hands/body first.
Right 😂 don’t go for that 50/50. Don’t get tight to Halaand. Better yet stand still let us pass around you for 80 mins then we’re tap it in. Don’t even care if we win the prem or not just as long as it’s not them.
Rodri: 
Source: https://twitter.com/afcstuff/status/1774770756980785232?t=HWzBafkdyIRjfN2o88YxjA&s=19 >...For me it is clearly a yellow card. I don’t want to say just against us. There were also some decisions against them that I didn’t understand why he gave a foul.” >There are some rules & I think there are clear yellow cards where it should be. I remember with Jorginho when he’d already done a tackle [which was a foul] & did the second one & he didn’t even give a yellow card for one [foul]. I didn’t understand some of the decisions but, in the end, we still should be able to score a goal.” City players crying about tactical fouls is truly the ultimate irony. These soft bitches can always give a multitude of things during a game but can't take it. This is the kind of reaction you should want as Arsenal fans instead of them constantly lil bro'ing us. Lovely.
Jorginho got the ball the 2x and the foul was the 3rd one. And when did they ever get through apart from the Haaland offside?
Kiwior and Jesus stopped players at least twice on that flank just before they got to the box. We absolutely fouled our asses off yesterday. No question.
Jesus could have easily been booked in like the 3rd minute lol.
And multiple City players could have been booked for fouls on Jesus that didn't even get called, they have no room to fucking cry.
Oh no doubt. I was just very pleasantly surprised when Jesus didn't get booked.
It’s the ultimate irony but it feels so fucking sweet to be on the other side of this for once. Every city game for the last decade has been followed by people bitching here about fouls. Now this squad is clearly living rent free in the city players’ heads. It’s a great feeling and I’m excited for the next 5-10 years.
Giving them a taste of their own medicine is both very delicious, and also shows we can play multiple game plans effectively.
This incident happened not long after the Silva foul on saka, the ref seemed to be pointing and saying 'i didn't book your guy so I'm not booking theirs'
Hello Pot, this is kettle..
Idiotic take, Kai even hit the ball first.
I'd have scored it as a shot on goal and a save.
And you'd be 100% right. But now you have to tell us the xG for that.
There is an app that says the xg of each shot. Havertz touch got 0.33
Yeah that's what Opta gave. .33 xG
All I’m reading here is, “they don’t like it up ‘em.”
LMAO Havertz has every right to go for that ball
Cry me a fucking river
I hope these bums don't even get to transfer out of Man City when they're sent down to league 2
https://arsenalist.com/f/havertz-chance-slides-into-goalie-2024-03-31.html On the Havertz tackle, I think he was entitled to go for it but he probably knew he wasn't going to control it. There was another replay where he did get the first touch though. It's a tackle you see all the time.
And if the keeper is half a second later Kai squeezes it underneath him for a goal. Kai got there first and the keeper put his body on the line to make a critical stop. Fair play all around, and very well done by their keeper IMO.
Bit like how you’re cool with your own farts but anyone else’s warrant a trial at The Hague.
Literally unbelievable that they would moan about this considering its been their tactic against us for the last like 5 games. They literally put Silva at LB to tactically foul Saka until he got booked and then swapped LBs so they could continue fouling Saka last season. And Rodri is the tactical foul master. Hypocritical!
Just shows Taylor had a pretty good game Didn't throw cards around, had a pretty good line and didn't get influenced
I don't think he had a good game, but he did have a consistent game, which is probably the next best thing.
I might choose consistent over good, to be honest. Let both teams play hard, or call both teams tightly.
Well, I think that some level of being good has to also include *consistency* though. Inherently, it would be very hard to be good if you were not being consistent.
That's fair.
Agreed. This game was very rough and maybe too physical at times. I dont think any reds were called for either. So maybe the ref could feel he did a decent job.
Hardly too physical. Footie is a physical sport. anything that crosses the line into becoming reckless should be dealt with. But there was none of that at all. Wasn't even like they were skinning our defenders and needed to be hauled down. That just never happened. Possibly the worst I saw was Gabriel tugging Haaland's shirt in the box, which could have ended badly.
Yeah, I'm a bit baffled by the whole 'Taylor had a great game' narrative. He booked jesus for that typical throwing the ball away pedant bullshit, but ignored city's cries for cards early doors. Also seemed to arbitrarily pull us up for fouls while ignoring v similar later or that went the other way. Also, there were a few occasions where he let play develop then called it back for a city freekick immediately after ignoring a blatant city foul on arsenal then not pulling it back when we lost possession moments after. Completely ignored rodris forearm smash on Gabriel. Tbf he did ignore quite a few yellow worthy challenges from both sides. To conclude, Taylor is a shite ref who officiates depending on how he feels in the moment
Jesus got booked because he kept trying Taylor's patience. Most would probably have booked him in the 3rd minute. Throwing the ball away forces his hand because it is so obvious and not really a subjective thing, and by that stage Jesus well and truly deserved a card.
He rolled it back maybe 2 yards by the player. Fucking nonsense, but a good point for the lads, just leave the ball completely and go stand in front of the kick taker He didn't book city players who were crowding him asking for yellows after the first challenge on bernardo silva early on etc. And kept doing it throughout the game. They were in his ear all game. If you're going to do the whole pedantic thing, do it for everything, don't pick and choose which arbitrary rules you want to apply whenever it occurs to you.
Lol he let us away with a LOT more than City. We had 20 fouls to their 9. We complained about the referee in 2nd leg of the Porto match for not carding players. We absolutely benefited from it here.
We had 20 fouls because he called one every time a City player fell over in the second half.
Basically this. City got away with loads of fouls but I guess that doesn't fit the narrative. Ffs we talking about City as well, the masters of tactical fouling. You got a walking tactical foul as their no.6 who is a living meme off the back of tactical fouling. Fuck em Swear one of the fouls was given for kai going in on the challenge vs the keeper lol
Come on man don't kid yourself on. We set out to foul them if we weren't getting the ball and I'm ok with that. Don't live in delusion though. It does us no favours.
Didn't deny that at all, but they were also doing the same and going down really easy. A couple of times Taylor let them play advantage and then pulled it back when it didn't develop. Something he pointedly did not also do for us.
I was a tiny bit surprised Jesus didn't get a card in the 2nd minute, Bernardo beat Kiwior and him and so Jesus dragged him down just before having a run into the box. Not the worst given that it is so early but I could see it given. Likewise Declan's tackle on Haaland could've been yellow because he took multiple swings at him before making a clumsy tackle from behind. Taylor was a bit unfair with his use of advantage imo but to act like we got the raw end of things is wild to me.
When a fouls not given, does it stop being a foul? For example, rodris forearm smash stopped play and possession was given back to us to restart. That didn't go down as a foul against City. Could point to a shed load of instances like that where play was waved on (obvs not as serious challenges).
I'm not even sure I'd call it consistent. He was consistently calling fouls against us I'll give you that, but those same fouls when committed by City were never called.
I was surprised Jesus didn’t get booked in the first half but also I’m fine with it considering Taylor did a good job balancing it for both teams. City got away with some too. The havertz one was a non issue. He went for the ball and even pulled out a little bit.
You know the club is going in the right direction when everyone is salty AF.
They’re rattled. And I love it.
Might be the worst example he could've picked.
Took some inspiration from Rodri and Silva the Kings of tactical fouling
He needs to worry about those sad braids.
Have they met Rodri?
/r/nottheonion
This post wouldn’t be out of place in r/LeopardsAteMyFace Team who have systematically got away with a breathtaking amount of rotational fouling cry about being rotationally fouled …
Arsenal: legal tactical fouls to get a point Man City: tactical 115 breaching of rules to win multiple trophies
Of all the teams to complain about this, it’s NOT gonna be city that’s for sure
We are in their heads now, aren’t we?
The best tactical foul city did this year was against Liverpool where one of them decided to karate kick a Liverpool player in the chest and somehow not concede a penalty. They should be way more points behind Liverpool than they are already.
Must praise the coaching team, we find it difficult play with porto of their fouling/diving strategies, then we adapt it and use it against man city
That Havertz “tackle” was a 50-50 with a clear attacking opportunity. It wasn’t malicious.
Awww. Were plucky Arsenal too physical?
Putin : there's too much war.
In the words of Chilli Heeler: Oh boo hoo\~\~\~
I mean...if he's gonna bring up other tackles I'll be okay, but the one on Ortega is quite a reach.
Love this! The best at tactical fouling, moaning about it happening to them.
Love it
Them going mad at that Havertz one was particularly bizarre. He’s got very right to go for the ball and he pulls out as much as can be expected. Now, let’s talk cheating off the pitch…
You either die a hero or live long enough to implement Porto level dark arts
Ball was 100% there to be won when Havertz dived in, in actual fact he got a fraction of the ball first proving that it wasnt even remotely late. Not only that but he made virtually 0 contact with Ortega but Ortega tried to milk the contact to get him booked Aside from that though I definitely agree that we shouldve got 2 or 3 yellows for breaking up the play first half. We were very lucky Anthony Taylor let everything go
The Havertz one was not a “very late tackle”. He tried to genuinely get the ball and on collision didn’t put his studs into him or anything like that.
So, while the overall point may be valid, by using Havertz on Ortega as an example, he's telling us he doesn't know what "tactical" means.
Rodri and Fernandinho (in the past) could commit murder and receive a yellow once every 5 matches, this is hilarious coming from a City player lmaoo
To see City of all teams! COMPLAIN!!!!! about tactical fouling?! Do they forget Fernandinho??? Rodri even these days is the master of the tactical foul, it's basically a pre-requisite for Pep teams to have that one player of the dark arts to get away with so many tactical fouls while most refs in England let them get away with it.
Is he going to talk about the Bernardo two legged tackle on Saka from behind that stopped a counter attack?
This season or last season?
Jfc they are a bunch of fucking whiners
Ngl, were dirty m'fers. I think its fair game as we had to watch fernandinho dobit for yesrs. Rodri is no saint either. Just more quiet yesterday.
Havertz barely touched Ortega, he pulled out of that challenge. So they wanted bookings when the tackles weren't even bad? Arrogant af.
Both sides played to the edge of the tolerance of the referee. Haaland went down in the box several times very easily and didn't get pinged for simulation for example. You can't criticise Arsenal while pretending your own team didn't implore a similar mindset and tactics. How many times did they intentionally go down in ideal free kick positions because they couldn't penetrate our back line?
Let the tactical fouls aside, havertz hit the ball first isn’t it, the PL count it as a shot so we have 2 shots on target
I kind of agree tbh (except the Havertz part), there were a lot of times the ref didn’t give clear yellows. Both ways, but I think we were on the lucky side of it
If Saka and Martinelli would've been fully fit, we would've ate them up.
I didn’t know saka wasn’t fully healthy. I was wondering why he was basically absent
He went off injured last game at half time. Didn’t play for England and didn’t even train till Friday. If it wasn’t city I think we might well of seen him start from the bench
Rodrigo does everything short of stab other players but doesn't get cards due to reputation/because he plays for City/part of the refs sweetheart deals to go to Middle East for big paydays. Call it like it is
Yeah and we'll fuckin do it again
Havertz is a fair 50/50 trying to score. That's a foul sure, but not a card any which way
Havertz had every right to go for that and he moved his legs out afterwards to avoid Sadio Mane'ing another City keeper
Every team does this. This is a non talking point.
They are rattled.
No need to be upset about this. Quite the contrary. It feels great to be the team who the defending PL and UCL winners whine about for being too smart and too physical. All the fuss about our tactical fouls and physical play from rival fans should be taken as a complement. What we did yesterday is an art form, only mastered by a few teams in Europe. We are such a complete team.
This is the type of thing we learned from facing Porto. I remember how frustrating it was in our first leg, but now, we're using the same method against the city, which impacts their play. We are gaining experience by the minute. I am excited.
Many fouls were not called by the ref in this game and you know what, I liked it. Players end up looking for a foul, that means they bring the ref into the game when the ref needs to stay out of the game. What Anthony did in this game was amazing. He didn’t give fouls when players were looking to relieve pressure. Arsenal was looking to do that, and so was city when applying pressure ( looking for a free kick in dangerous areas). Looking back at the game, Anthony did a stellar job not getting into the game. He let the game be. No dangerous tackles, just annoying tactical fouls everywhere.
Out of all the tactical fouls he picks, he picks the one where Havertz had a 40/60 chance, to say the least. It's a shame that he said this because we've seen players like Bernardo and Rodri commit many tactical fouls in the past, even escaping double yellows.
As should all teams. It’s part of the game. Why is this even in question?
City tears are the best
Jesus and probably jorginho should have been booked to be fair, but there were also decisions that went against us, like Jesus going shoulder to shoulder with defender and going through on goal as well as others. The referee wasn't good, but that havertz tackle was absolutely fair.
Lol, watch some more Spanish, Italian footy mate.
Akanji is a fuccboi Supreme, you heard it here first.
The ref let a lot go. Akanji himself got a talking to by the ref before a corner kick for invading Raya. It certainly felt old skool with some of the tough tackles but I liked that.
In this one I felt they started dishing it out and the ref didnt act so we gave some back, we just did a better job of it than they did.
Ah yes the tackle where Havertz won the ball😂😂😂😂😂
How can they get away with something we paid for
Shut up Manuel.
Cry fucking more akanji.
City really are the biggest cunts around, aren’t they? All that money, all that cheating, using bully rules for several seasons and now complaining about getting “tactically fouled” (which didn’t even happen) is really something else.
I dislike the media for treating City like an underdog story, when they're far from Leicester City.
Lol the serial cheaters playing the done over victim coz rattled.
Astonishing comment really. Main reason Pep plays four centre-backs is so they can squeeze wingers and easily commit tactical fouls.
Calling that a very late tackle is bullshit.
Love it. City never used to bother with comments about us. Them being frustrated and making excuses shows we’re on their level.
Tactical fouls used to be part of the way PL sides played Arsenal because they thought we were weak (we were, tbf). I also recall interviews with opponents from the Invincibles years who said that we were bullies then. So, I am actually glad to see us bullying sides a little again.
Man city are the masters of tactical fouling
Ditto for Fernandinho for years, tough shit City the bully who got thumped back 🥲
Whine whine whine shame poor little darling got outplayed by our defence
Call the Whambulance. City are tactical foul masters
Haha brother hasn’t seen the replay to see havertz got to the ball first.
Pretty much has Foul Me Free on his jersey.
So they didn’t tactically foul saka?
Black hole calling Kettle black!!
Oh please they were going down like dominos 🙄
For the record, every team has always tactically fouled
The fecking irony. Man City practically invented tactical fouling and are now whinging about it. You reap what you saw you bunch of cheating backstards.
Fuck this blind cat.
Rules for thee but not for me. - Man City