Morning all.
I note that after his red card versus Southampton on Wednesday night, Gabriel ‘issued an apology’ via his Instagram account. He said:
‘ I want to excuse what occurred today! I keep my direct to continue assisting my colleagues! #gunners
Fair enough. He was a bit daft, but this is a 22 years of age main defender who I make certain realises just how essential he is to the team. He was attempting a bit too hard etc etc, and it also would not be unreasonable if our present situation has actually left him feeling the pressure a bit. If it’s affecting more senior gamers, then it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think it ‘d have an effect on a fairly brand-new arrival, and a player still pretty young in the life of a centre-half.
He probably sat there praying that we ‘d hang on, because if being down to ten men had actually cost us, Southampton had scored another goal and condemned us to that record 5th consecutive home defeat, I make certain he ‘d have felt responsible/guilty (in the context of the game, not for our broader concerns).
You might remember after the red card at Leeds, Nicolas Pepe also apologised, saying:
” There is no reasons for my behaviour. I am deeply sorry and would like to apologise to the fans, my team-mates, my coach and everybody else at the club.”
On the Daft-O-meter, which determines the stupidity of a player’s behaviour when they choose up a red card, Pepe’s was pretty high, and Gabriel’s quite low.
Luckily we had a spare Daft-O-Meter in the cupboard, since the one we used for Granit Xhaka’s red card versus Burnley blew up when we fed the sending-off information into it.
Could it be that the sort of nasty that is devoted on any slightly lithe, a little sprightly, partially mobile footballer by one who lumbers around a pitch like a drunken bear who has simply stuffed himself on metric lots of fermented fruit is understood forever as a ‘Xhaka’? Stranger things have actually happened.
” Look at Robbie Savage there in this charity video game versus aging pop-stars.
Anyway, Xhaka did a Xhaka, but instead of walk away, he took exception to somebody complaining his own foul, then got the bloke who was attempting to walk him far from trouble around the throat– albeit briefly– to ensure that at least among the seventeen trillion ultraHD video cameras pointed at the on-pitch action caught it. I do not know what he precisely kicked when he was coming off the pitch, but it’s simply an embarassment it wasn’t his own arse.
I have actually seen people questioning where the Swiss international’s apology is. Gabriel said sorry, Pepe said sorry, however there’s been radio silence from Granit FM. Here’s the important things: anyone anticipating him to say sorry is going to be waiting a very long time. Keep in mind, this is a person who threw the captain’s armband on the flooring, and informed the fans to hold up their Ronsons as he strolled off the pitch in that crazy incident just over a year ago.
Without wanting to re-legislate the entire thing again, I do recognise this was a storm which had been developing for some time, there were a lot of aspects involved, bad choices made which led everybody to that point, however he never apologised for it.
There was never ever going to be one for something as mundane as what he ‘d consider a ‘heat of the minute’ red card in the middle of a match. His ‘redemption’ under Mikel Arteta remained in some part to expediency, and to be reasonable to him, he played his part in our FA Cup success during the summer season.
But Arteta keeps selecting him, and the red card against Burnley, that was so expensive.
What will it imply for Xhaka now?
Social network apologies for red cards don’t suggest a substantial quantity in the grand scheme of things, but if two players have seemed like they need to be accountable to fans, colleagues and the club, and one does not, that develops a variation which isn’t perfect. This leads us into today’s Arsecast, in which the topic of culture, responsibility, responsibility, leadership, decision making from leading to bottom, and lots more been available in a conversation between myself and Clive Palmer ( @clivepafc).
All the links you require to listen/subscribe are listed below. Mikel Arteta fulfills the press this morning ahead of our key journey to Everton tomorrow, and we’ll have all the news on Arseblog News throughout the day.
Take pleasure in the podcast.