Morning all.

I think the Rice thing has probably rumbled on long enough, but I thought this angle of the incident from Arsenal’s Access All Areas video was worth posing (via @LBallessano) was worth looking at.

As all the ‘letter of the law’ merchants waffle on, and the ESPN lad who would defend a referee if he went out and shot someone on 5th Avenue backs-up Howard Webb’s motley crew, just remember that the game has a big problem. You don’t get a red card for choke-slamming someone (Mosquera), you don’t get a red card for clothes-lining a goalkeeper as he’s trying to get the game going (Joelinton), you don’t get a red card when you deliberately elbow someone in the side of the head (Guimaraes on Jorginho last season), but you do get a red card for a tiny nick on the ball while someone boots you in the side of the leg. That’s not normal. How can it be normal for the bloke who has been booted to be the one sent off, while the booter doesn’t get even get booked?

I suppose if there is anything to be thankful of, it’s that Veltman’s targetted assault on Rice didn’t lead to any kind of injury (as far as we know). The force he used there made that both violent conduct and something which endangered the safety of an opponent, but as I’ve said here often, PGMOL (and its apologists) will crack down on trivialities (kicking the ball, managers celebrating their team scoring a goal, even teams celebrating a last minute winner), but refuse to pay proper attention to acts of violent conduct.

At some point this season, a player will suffer the consequences of that light-touch approach. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. I really hope it’s not one of ours, and I’m on not wishing it on anyone else, but the thing is, there are certain players who will push those boundaries. And if they see repeated incidents go unpunished properly, they will push even further and the outcome will be a serious injury. But there’ll be some tutting, some mealy-mouthed sympathy for the injured player, and then we’ll be told the perpetrator is not that kind of player. That’s how it works.

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Elsewhere, a story emerged yesterday about Saudi club Al Ittihad making a €35m bid for Leandro Trossard. Arsenal, of course, rejected it out of hand, because he’s an important player and we don’t have the ability to find a replacement because the transfer window is closed.

It just made me think the Saudi club was really, really dumb, because why would you wait until after the close of the window to make a bid? I’d say there was a very, very small chance Arsenal and the player might have been tempted if there was time to use that money to make another signing, but zero chance of success when the bid doesn’t arrive until three days after that possibility.

I thought there was an interesting line in James’ post-transfer window piece on The Athletic (£) about how Edu had spent some time in Saudi Arabia, cultivating contacts within that league. It said: “Arsenal were struck by the fact the Pro League’s football infrastructure and facilities are still in relative infancy. They were dubious whether any of their players would be tempted to move there.”

Obviously things could improve, and while this might be a bit simplistic and not applicable in all cases, it’s probably fair to say that players who choose to go to Saudi Arabia right now are prioritising money above all else. Which is entirely their right, by the way, but you don’t go there to fulfill life-long footballing ambitions (above getting very, very rich).

Trossard turns 30 in December, and who knows what he might decide to do in the future. For now though, he strikes me as someone who would much prefer to compete in the Premier League and Champions League, having only fairly recently arrived at a club which is at that level. He played himself into the team for Saturday’s game after a great cameo against Villa, and while his performance wasn’t brilliant as a starter, he did make an excellent chance for Martin Odegaard which the captain probably should have scored from.

So, on a different day we’re talking about another Trossard goal-contribution, rather than debating whether or not his role is better suited to coming off the bench. It might be, but then when you have Gabriel Martinelli struggling to find end-product when he starts, it becomes a more complicated situation. Arsenal now have Raheem Sterling as a possible candidate for that position too, so it’s quite an interesting dynamic and I’m curious to see how it develops over the course of the season.

Right, I’ll leave it there for now. The Arsecast Extra is below if you haven’t yet had a chance to listen, and over on Patreon we review all the weekend’s Premier League action in a new episode of The 30.

Till tomorrow.

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