The Injustice of it all

Theo got the ball on the edge of our area. He started to run, and he didn't stop until he had put through an inch perfect pass to Ade to score the goal which should have taken us through to the Champions League semi finals. My wonderful friend James and I went nuts. In a pub full of Liverpool fans (God knows why), we made a ridiculous amount of noise as we jumped up and down celebrating the emergence of a superstar and, more importantly, the fact that we were 6 minutes away from the semi finals of the most prestigious cup competition in the world. It was a fantastic feeling, and I was certain that the memory of that goal would stay with me untainted for a very long time. This was not to be the case.

We had literally only just sat down from the madness of the previous two minutes when Liverpool were awarded a ridiculously soft penalty which was duly dispatched by the otherwise anonymous Steven Gerrard. I do not want to get into debate about whether or not Liverpool should have been awarded the penalty (of course they should not). No, I want to look at the inconsistency in refereeing that we saw over the two legs. After all, it does not really matter if Ryan Babel was actually fouled by Kolo Toure or not. The fact is that if he was deemed to have been fouled, then it is very difficult to accept that the 'tackle' by Dirk Kuyt on Alex Hleb last week was legal. These two decisions have cost Arsenal a place in the last four of the Champions League.

People might say that it is too easy to look at the referee's decisions and ignore the flaws in the Arsenal team which contributed to our failure to proceed in the tournament, so I will acknowledge them now:

Firstly, without Rosicky, the team does not have a natural right winger in Emmanuel Eboue. I disagree with the majority of Arsenal fans who consistently moan about the Ivorian, but I recognise the fact that his contribution to the side is not necessarily as strong as it should be. Perhaps Theo Walcott should have started in his place, but we'll never know whether this would have made a difference.Secondly, playing Toure at right back and putting Senderos in the centre simply highlighted the fact that the squad is very short on central defenders, an issue which must be dealt with over the summer.

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