🚨 Jamie Carragher Slams Arsenal After Final Defeat to PSG
🗣️: "That might be the worst performance I've ever seen in a Champions League final. Honestly, Arsenal played like Getafe for 120 minutes. Ninety minutes of sitting deep, thirty more minutes of sitting even deeper.
I kept waiting for them to show some ambition, some courage, but the plan seemed obvious: survive, survive, survive and hope David Raya wins the penalty shootout.
This is the Champions League final, not a relegation battle. You can't spend two hours defending your own box and expect people to praise it as tactical genius.
Mikel Arteta got it completely wrong. PSG looked like they wanted to win the trophy; Arsenal looked like they were trying not to lose it. If your entire game plan is to get to penalties because you've got a good goalkeeper, you've already handed control of the final to the opposition.
For me, that's one of the poorest final performances this competition has ever seen."
🚨🎙️ Wayne Rooney:🔴
"I said it before and people attacked me for it — I'm not a fan of Mikel Arteta's style of football. Today, everyone has seen exactly what I was talking about.💣
You don't play a cup final with fear. You don't play a final looking scared to make mistakes. Finals are for brave players and brave teams.👀
Arsenal spent the whole night playing with panic, passing responsibility, and looking afraid to take risks. They did it against Manchester City and today again they did it against PSG tonight, and we've seen the same thing happen in big games before.
For all the possession and tactical talk, when the pressure is highest, they freeze. That's not the mentality of champions.
You can have all the patterns of play in the world, but if fear controls your football in a final, you'll always come up short."
It is extremely rare for me to applaud a referee, but hats off to Daniel Siebert.
He was spot on not to award Arsenal a penalty for Madueke’s fall inside the box.
Slow down the replay and watch it again. Madueke was the one pulling Mendes' arm, and he was already going down looking for contact.
If anything, it should have been a free kick to PSG. Brilliant officiating from the referee.
Need more of this in the Premier League.
In fairness I think it was Mark Calettenberg who said if a team are taking too long just reverse the decison. Be great to bring that in.
Ref tells Saka to hurry up and take the corner with stoppage time up. Saka does his usual slow-walk to run down the clock. The ref calmly waits, and the absolute second Saka gets into position? He blows for half-time.
Absolute cinema. Masterclass game management for a final.
Arsenal got so used to getting away with murder from Premier League refs that when someone actually enforces the rules, they think they’re being robbed.
Credit where it’s due tho, they played some demonic football to get here. But if PL refs weren't so intimidated by Arteta’s touchline tantrums and fooled by their theatrics, Arsenal wouldn’t be parading a PGMOL trophy today.
Justice served in Europe! 🫶🏼
🚨🗣Antonio Conte on the Controversy Surrounding Arsenal’s Premier League Title Win:
"The situation is only going to get worse. Many fans will never truly regard Arsenal as legitimate Premier League champions. Why? Because the world saw how referees favoured them in so many games. They relied heavily on set-pieces and got away with undeserved goals on multiple occasions".
"The officials often seemed biased in Arsenal’s favour throughout the season, and that’s not good for the Premier League. You can’t call it the best league in Europe when things like this happen — all to help a team that had been chasing the title for over four years finally win it."
🚨🗣 Didier Drogba's reaction to Arsenal winning the league title.
"How the hell can you celebrate a trophy you basically stole with the referee’s helping hand? What a pathetic joke. This is a total disgrace to the Premier League, the referees, and that joke of a VAR system for their utterly inconsistent, biased officiating. Arsenal fans can pop the champagne all they want, but we all know the truth — that title was handed to them."
🚨 Fabian Hürzeler on Arsenal winning the Premier League:
“0 red cards and 0 penalties conceded… it’s suspicious. A campaign not for the history books. Last time, I said ‘only one team tried to play’ and I stand by that. It’s not my style. I will never be that kind of manager who tries to win in that way. I want to do well. I want my players to keep improving and keep playing proper football on the pitch....
Mikel Arteta has a way of infuriating supporters with his mastery-based tactics, vapid statements, and frenetic sideline appearances. It’s a very boring style of play to watch — based on control, defence, and set pieces. This title will be forgotten like it never happened.”
From Blaqwit Footy Tales