Aston Villa News 24/7Writer: J P Fear 
Date:Wednesday March 14 2007
Time: 11:14PM
UK time is: 13:38:09
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Martin O'Neill Gutted
Luckless Villa v Arsenal Whingers?
Arsenal, on their day, are a sight to behold, they stroke the ball about like nobody's business, they have skill and athleticism to burn, so why why why do they have to resort to time wasting, diving and faking injuries? This is not what any of us want to see in the British leagues and the quicker it is stamped out the better.
Martin O'Neill said after the game, a match in which despite losing 1-0 it is difficult to fault any Villa player as they truly did give all they had and did us proud tonight:
'Arsenal should have played the last 70 minutes with ten men.'
Adding: 'We lacked a little bit of luck and I hate to use that word. But they scored a lucky goal and I'm told there was a suspicion of offside. At the other end John Carew looks like he's just going to score - he's at least going to have a shot on goal - and he's brought down. It was very, very close to being a penalty, but I'll accept that it was just outside. What I don't accept is the fact that the player stayed on. He should have gone.'
'I know the referee would argue that Gallas was making an attempt to get across, but he was not going to get remotely close to him. So that was a goalscoring opportunity and he should have gone. You never know though, maybe we'll get a bit of luck on Sunday and things will work in our favour. It's bitterly disappointing to have lost that game and I felt we deserved at least a point for the way we piled on the pressure in the second-half.'
'I can't really fault the performance and I'm absolutely distraught we haven't taken anything from the game. Overall I was very pleased with the way we played and with just a little bit of luck, we would have taken something from the game.'
Luck, one of these days ours will turn. We deserved something out of that game tonight but at least the players and fans can walk away with pride. The Arsenal on the other hand walk away with 3 points but as usual lacked sportsmanship and dignity.
Mark Atkinson if you are a Premiership standard referee then I'm Brad Pitts body double in Fight Club.
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Your Comments
Boo ******** hoo, if anyone this season has been screwed by *****ty refereeing and timewasting its us so only fair someone else got their turn. If every team we play can time waste when they're a goal up why cant we. Agreed its not pretty, and personally i dont like seeing the Arsenal resort to it, but still if the whole rest of the league gets away with it why shouldnt we.
Ozi Gooner
he's gutted am Damn *****ed off and we all know the top 4 teams in the Premiership get special treatment
Christo
yes special treatment which is why wigan weren't punished for it earlier in the season
legrandesaucisse
At least these guys are admitting they were lucky and that they needed to resort to nonsense to get away with the win.
gwyllum18
calm down lads. I will agree with O'Neill that Villa deserved something out of this game, but it is football. Sometimes you get it sometimes not. We had our share of the luck tonight, you did not. Aliadiere missed not 1, not 2 but three 100% chances - so there's your luck. As far as diving, whinging etc. the beanpole Carew (what a menace!) went down as Lehmann was running next to him, and Barry was constantly mouthing $hit at the ref, who did a pretty good job. The linos were cr@p in several situations, but how is that Arsenal's fault? Good game, and good luck in the rest of the season.
G4L
the gooners are good but most of the time thats because decisions go their way. them and manu must be the most protected teams in the PL, and thats a hard fact.
powerspur
The linesman flagging Villa offside in 1st half out of 6 vital decisions got 3 wrong,that is pretty woeful.Arsenal were just too clever for the Referee on many occasions but we just didn`t test Lehmann enough,looked better in 2nd half ( 4-3-3 shock ! ) but Young stayed too wide instead of hurting Arsenal where it matters and Gabby isn`t a threat anymore for whatever reason,MON please keep with 4-3-3!!!!
ASPINALL
it doesn't matter which formation you play, the ref would have made sure the gooners win in the end.
powerspur
First two offside situations of the game were wrongly judged! If we were Chelski, we would have a clear chances from that offsides, as it would not be considered as offsides and it would be our striker alone in one on one with keeper chances for us... 2-0? And what about two "not penalty" decisions, both of hand plays in Gooner´s penalty area? And what about red card for Gooner? Clear red card, professional faul, thank you, game over (only one good refree decision was, that this was not a penalty, ok I agree). So that was a real crap refree game, and I was realy angry, because the ref cost us THREE points. Ref did not let us play!
Majkee
G4L makes a good point about the lino's and the ref, all three have no balls and should be taken out into a field and shot at close range with a large bore rifle. Not fit. As for faking injuries and crowding the ref with 10 men when he has to make a decision its about time the FA done something about this, at the end of the day its desent and should be stamped out. McCann and Petrov were shocking against Denilson and Cesc, Petrov got his boot in a few times and fair play, but where was McCann? I cant remember him making a tackle and I remember Mellberg coming out a few times to cover his mistakes. I have to do this, cant believe I am going to but here goes..........why wasnt Petrov substituted for Davis, and why wasnt Gabby substituted for Moore???? I love MON but last night I have to question his blind faith in Petrov and not changing things when we were looking for that goal
Stig
Another poor game from Gabby, lost the ball constantly and didn't close down his defender when they had possession, leaving him with loads of space to counter-attack. I was sure that MON would bring Luke on for him at half-time and was amazed when he didn't. As for McCann and Petrov, well, if we ever needed any more evidence that we are crying out for some midfield QUALITY this was it.
jonah
Looking at the table it does give us a bit of hope for the future. We have lost fewer games than any team above us with exception of the top 4 and Everton. We put up with the whinging spuds coming on our site but they have lost more games than us this season. So maybe with a bit more luck and a lot more creativity in midfield, a steadier back four and Carew from the start of the season we could have converted some of those draws into wins. Roll on the summer transfer window and next season. UTV
Hoss The Villain
has anyone seen the papers today? villa could get europe next season through the fair play route, were 2nd to man u in the fp league and that could mean the uefa!!
bobbyfett
Calm down bobbyfett. I think all that does is put their name into a lottery of clubs from every European league from which only two are drawn to go into the EUFA cup.
jonah
Petrov was class - Fabregas hardly got a touch. He was great!
Miss_Aston
We didn't lose because Arsenal were good, or outplayed us, nor did we lose because of the very poor referee. O.K., we gave it our all, played some decent stuff, and at times looked the part, but lets keep this in perspective. We lost, yet again, due to our failings. Our inability to create, make that final telling pass, or put away the few chances that opened up for us.
glensider
Things will change for Villa, not this season, maybe not next season but things will change, sometimes wonder if the team lacks self belief.
col8
We must also remember that this was far from a full strength Arsenal line up, and that in itself indicates how far we really still have to go to correct the malaise that has spread throughout VP in recent years.
glensider
hoss- "whinging spuds"? the spud came on your site to support you and you call it whinging, how ungreatful of you. I can also play that game: year, you lost less than us but unfortunately for you, your team has also won less than us, AND we are higher up the league, AND we started slower than your lot. on second thoughts, maybe you deserved to lose to the gooners.
powerspur
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