Referees can use discretion + Arsenal’s midfield problem

Morning.

I suppose it’s quite funny to see my various social media feeds etc awash with examples of players who ‘delayed the restart’ this weekend by picking the ball up when a free kick was awarded, or stood in the way to prevent the opposition getting things going again quickly. The ‘letter of the law’ merchants have little to say about it, and here’s the thing we all know: if the letter of the law was applied across the board in every game, football would be ruined.

For example, every corner or set-piece into the box would result in either a free kick to the defending team, or a penalty to the opposition. It just depends who the referee decided to give the decision to. There would be no middle ground with the letter of the law. That’s why referees have the ability to use discretion.

Clive made a good Tweet, which highlighted exactly that. Last weekend, when John McGinn booted the ball at William Saliba, he could easily have been booked, and when Ben White booted it right back at the Villa man, he could have picked up a yellow card too – by the letter of the law. Even when it looked like there might be a bit of aggro between the two sets of players, the ref came over, had a word, calmed things down, and we quickly got on with the game. No bookings, no red cards, just a sensible handling of a brief flare-up in a 90 minute game of football.

Now, I’m not here to defend Michael Oliver, whose track record of fudging decisions in games we’re involved in has been annoying at times, but you would 100% take that kind of officiating over the nonsense Chris Kavanagh served up on Saturday. His face when he was giving Declan Rice his second yellow was saying ‘You gave me no choice, what can I do?’, as if he couldn’t have dealt with the situation any differently.

Of course he could have, he just chose not to. You all can have you own opinions on why that might be, but that’s the bottom line. Whether he saw it as an opportunity to make himself the centre of attention, or something else, he eschewed common sense and discretion to punish Rice, and by extension Arsenal. As I said in yesterday’s blog, the unfairness of that decision in the context of the game we were playing is exacerbated by the fact he is now suspended for our game against Sp*rs in a couple of weeks time. That feels particularly harsh for such a tiny infringement of a rule which is, more often than not, never punished by referees.

It certainly gives Mikel Arteta something to think about ahead of that fixture, and my main takeaway from the first three games of the season is that we have a bit of a midfield problem at the moment. Obviously the Mikel Merino injury is a big part of that. I strongly suspect that had he been fit, he’d have made his debut on Saturday as part of the post-red card reshuffle. Adding a player of his experience and quality to midfield seemed the obvious change to make, but without him, I feel like the manager was reluctant to do that.

His option on the bench was Jorginho, and I don’t think Arteta trusted that a pair of 30+ legs with Thomas Partey and Jorginho were sufficient to deal with Brighton in that context – hence the decision to use Riccardo Calafiori and shift to a back 5. I am quite curious to know what’s happening with him though, because he has barely played of late. At the end of last season, he dropped to the bench when Partey was available again, and played just 30 minutes in three substitute appearances across the last 5 games. He hasn’t got off the bench this season yet.

Now, if Partey was tearing things up in midfield, I’d understand it a little better, but that’s really not the case. I have major concerns about how players can bypass him – on and off the ball – and the security in possession he used to possess is no longer there. He gets caught on the ball too frequently, and no longer has the ability to win it back when he does lose it. So, I have found Arteta’s reluctance to use Jorginho a bit odd, but perhaps that tells us something about the Italian international as well.

All of which is to say that without Merino and Rice for the derby, the manager will likely have to reconfigure his midfield a bit. If Gabriel Jesus is fit to start, you could see Kai Havertz drop back in, but given how good he’s been up front, it’s an unfortunate change to have to make it. But, that’s the reality of it. When Merino is back, and maybe when Rice has the benefit of a week off when he returns from international duty, I think our midfield will take on a different shape, but this weekend’s events have illustrated a problem right now, and one which will test us given our fixtures after the Interlull.

Ok, that’s it for this morning. Please join us for a brand new Arsecast Extra a little later on. Keep an eye out for the call for questions on Threads @gunnerblog and @arseblog with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re an Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.

Pod should be out mid-morning. For now, have a good one.