To borrow a phrase from Catch-22, just because you’re being followed across the continent by a frothing cloud of online paranoia over questionable refereeing decisions doesn’t mean the game isn’t out to get you too .

Arsenal were undoubtedly a bit unlucky in distributing competitive penalties during the first half of this 1-0 defeat to Inter at San Siro. But bad luck also has a tendency to look for a place to hang out, a ledge to perch on. The Masonic referee conspiracies that span the continent may finally get you in the end. But you can also make it difficult for them.

Should we do the punishments first? And then move on to ask why the punishments, while unfortunate, aren’t really a thing? Because in this case, Arsenal had every right to grumble a little about at least one of the key decisions in the first half that really could have gone the other way.

First came the one that was not given, but that might have been given. This saw Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer come out to clear a cross and hit Mikel Merino on the head instead. It was, to be fair, a very sweet, clean shot that hit Merino right on the side of the head and put him down. The referee strictly allowed the game to continue. The VAR had a look, but Sommer was cleared of committing any foul and was awarded a penalty against, well, goalkeeping.

A few minutes later, with the match still goalless, Inter were awarded the penalty that would ultimately decide the match. Correct the way it happens, but according to some silly rule that should be changed. This time it came from a free-kick hit against the Arsenal wall, where the ball ricocheted haphazardly off the hapless Merino’s raised foot and traveled some 18 inches to his arm, which was just above where the arms go there, because it is an arm. .

The penalty was awarded after a new inspection. The crime is actually possession of weapons. There was no cheating or unfair advantage. Under Premier League leadership this probably wouldn’t have happened as a degree of common sense has been introduced into these situations. Here it was correct according to the rules. Change them. If even the perpetually baffled Premier League referee brain has managed to better understand this scenario, life may be trying to tell you something. The stairs were quite buried. And from there, Arsenal always seemed to lose this match, even though, through pressure, territory, shots and the spectacle of Inter’s players spread across the ground like a reenactment of the civil war battlefield, they also seemed to be making their way having to force it back. in it.

They are currently running through heavy ground. The defeat here made it two wins in the last six. Away from home, they have not scored against anyone other than Preston since Gabriel’s header at the Etihad at the end of September.

Is this bad luck? Are there dark forces involved? The fact is that this Arsenal team still has many of its best qualities, from defensive strength to mind and heart, to handle the ball with ease. But they have also very clearly plateaued and even regressed as an offensive entity. There is a big problem with Saka dependency. No other major team in recent years has put so much strain on one highly effective forward.

And while Bukayo Saka is a great right winger, his range of movement is concentrated and limited, rather than meandering, field-wide creativity. Close off one narrow channel and you essentially cut this team off from open play. This is a failure of attacking the imagination, and also of recruitment.

They still played well here. There was a shift in gears at the start of the second half. They could have easily scored the equalizer. Kai Havertz missed a poacher’s chance. Is this bad luck? Havertz is not a poacher. He’ll miss this one. The team is missing that specific backup piece, the quick-fix dealer, the player who can win an ugly game.

Arsenal have recently been accused of moving closer to the José Mourinho style, an observation that is mainly taken as a huge insult, which is quite funny in itself. But the fact is they don’t want to play like that. They have simply lost an element of fluidity, which has been disproportionately depleted by the absence of a single player.

Without Martin Ødegaard, Arsenal don’t even have a vaguely Ødegaard-shaped senior footballer to fall back on, no channel, no free-floating element. Meanwhile, on Saka’s other flank, Gabriel Martinelli is actually a runner, who spends the game here accelerating up and down his sideline in a persistent straight line, a man who does shuttle sprints that come very close to a football match.

There is referred pain due to this lack of teeth. There was a strange structural paradox in Arsenal’s possession in the second half. Somehow they managed to be urgent and meandering at the same time. They will probably still reach the next stage, although perhaps not with a farewell to the last 16 stage. But there are structural issues here that shouldn’t obscure the return of the one missing piece, and indeed some mild bad luck that night.