Big Gabi isn’t coming, but Oliver and Attwell are… – Suburban Gooners

I had a few days of extreme hangovers on Sunday and yesterday, so I really didn’t want to come here and complain about Big Gabi, but I guess eventually we have to face the inevitable.

I watched a short clip of Martin Keown on this national radio station which has become a clickbait fest these days and he seemed optimistic about being able to compete in the North London Derby, but I absolutely can’t imagine that happening. He was limping when he was injured, he spent the entire second half with ice on his groin (it’s a pretty unpleasant experience for anyone!) and then there are photos of him walking by the team bus later with a limp. This is not a light blow. It’s an injury. With the North London Derby a week away from this match, I just don’t see how he will fare. A quick Google search yields this:

An adductor strain can take anywhere from 1 to 2 weeks for a mild strain (grade 1), to 3 to 6 weeks for a moderate strain (grade 2), and up to 3 to 4 months for a severe strain (grade 3). The exact healing time depends on the severity of the injury, and recovery requires rest and physical therapy, with a gradual return to activity to avoid re-injury.

So I think the best we can hope for is one of those first-year strains that means he’s back at Chelsea. But knowing our luck (and I really hope I don’t bring this into existence), it’ll be a two or a three and we won’t see him again until the new year. I don’t expect Arteta to be asked about him, to reveal anything and, if he does, I suspect he will give the impression there is an outside chance. Do you remember last season? I’m pretty sure it was at the North London Derby that we heard him talking about Odegaard and how he wanted to play the week after an international break. There were people wondering how he could play, but it ended up being a bit of a red herring on the manager’s part; he missed 14 games during what turned out to be the biggest injury of his career and we ended up not seeing him again until early November, 57 days later.

The thing to hope with Big Gabi is that it’s not that bad, but even three weeks is huge in the context of this season. As you’ve already heard from other podcasters, listened to on the radio and probably read in other articles, Gabriel Magalhaes is much more than just the best defender; he is also our most threatening threat from set pieces. Even when he doesn’t score, he sometimes occupies two or three defenders, giving other players opportunities and to have that taken away in a meaningless friendly is beyond words frustrating. I understand he could have gotten injured at any time – training, game against Arsenal, etc. – but firstly, he didn’t, and secondly, rumors that he was already in the fabled “red zone” only make things even more infuriating. His manager for Brazil and the coaching staff must be the ones to take responsibility; players will never say they don’t want to play, so you have to be the one to say “we’ll leave you out for now”. What would have gone wrong if he sat back, rested, and then played his next friendly against Lille? I know he was playing at the Emirates and he would have desperately wanted to go, but sometimes teams just have to take the decision out of the players’ hands.

Speaking of decisions that are out of our hands, how about the fact that we found out yesterday that Michael Olivier is going to be refereeing the North London Derby this Sunday, eh? When was the last time we saw him, I wonder? Oh yeah, when he wrongly sent off Myles Lewis-Skelly against Wolves last season. But Michael Oliver now has a criminal record against us. Check this statistic from Scott from January: 13% of matches refereed by Michael Oliver and involving us have a red card. When you think about that volume going back to those years, it’s a high statistic and also includes the Man City and Trossard farce from last season. This includes Martinelli’s “double yellow in one action” which we haven’t seen before, as well as Kovacic’s “non-sending”, which Howard Webb later tried to pass off as “not wanting to spoil the game” or words to that effect. Of course, that wasn’t the case when Trossard was forced out last season, but we also got another crude line of reasoning from Webb the following week, so we shouldn’t really be surprised.

All I want is a game without controversy. Don’t talk about yourself, Oliver. Referee the game as everyone sees it. Last weekend the game was refereed differently, with you on VAR desperately looking for a reason to rule out Liverpool’s equalizer. Don’t give us reason to think there’s a chair shaped like Michael Oliver in the blue half of Manchester. Refer it fairly, refer it equally, if there is the right decision to be made then do it. I’m tired of talking about the PGMOL’s crappy refereeing standards. I want to talk about football and if Arsenal deserve a red card then fine, or if we concede a penalty through our own stupidity then ok. But I don’t want to find myself shouting in a hoarse voice because you did what you did during the aforementioned incidents. Please.

Just to add a shit cherry on a PGMOL shit cake, we have Attwell on VAR, who we also had precedent with and up until September of this season he hadn’t officiated a game for us in almost two years because of the debacle at St James’ Park a few seasons ago. So there is something to look forward to…

I’ll let you stew on this one like me! Have a good evening friends and I’ll be back tomorrow.