The first half didn't even see a yellow card, which, although there perhaps should have been one or two, at least the ref was consistent. I'm still convinced there was a completely different bloke that came out for the second half. He handed out 3 yellow cards in less than 3 minutes at one point. Flamini saw a yellow card just for coming on the pitch, not a foul was made in his case. And as for Ramsey, many think neither of his cards were warranted. Certainly he was nowhere near the biggest threat on the field as far as inflicting physical injury on opponents, yet he was the one player the referee chose to punish the most severely.
In the Premiership referee's are suspended or 'benched' for games if they have a particularly poor performance, and I think something similar should be done in this case. Mr. Mazic did not cause Arsenal to draw this game, but he ruined it from an entertainment point of view for pretty much everyone. Let's just hope he doesn't make the trip to The Emirates next week.
So, the game finished 0-0, and I think that was a decent result for us with the second leg being at home in North London. The Turks don't travel well, and I think the lads will be more comfortable at home.
The 0-0 part, however, has yet again sparked the debate about us needing a new striker. I must admit it's getting rather boring reading fans and pundits alike urging Wenger to spend £50million on a new striker because Giroud and Sanogo aren't good enough.... We are two games into the season, let's just allow Giroud to gain some fitness and get his touch back after his holidays. I would think that fans, if they knew anything about the current state of Arsenal Football Club would be worrying slightly more about a defender than a striker, considering we have two central defenders in our entire squad. Perhaps I'm the crazy one.
And so the season has truly begun - the fans have already forgotten about our positive transfer business this summer and are right back onto the back of the manager complaining about him not signing enough players. Ooh to be a Gooner, eh?
A draw in Turkey doesn't scream 'end of the world' to me in any way shape or form, so let's see if we can qualify for the Champions League group stages first before we all have nervous breakdowns. Maybe if we get thumped 8-1 by Everton this weekend I'll entertain the idea that we need to discuss options, but for now I see a team that has a lot of potential. Let's see.
Arteta will unfortunately miss the trip to Everton with a rolled ankle, but while we hope we won't see him out for too long we do get the added bonus of the German trio being in contention this weekend. Welcome back, lads!
