The last few days for Arsenal have not been the best. Mikel Arteta’s side were knocked out of the FA Cup by losing 1-0 to Manchester City before losing 1-0 to Everton in the league. The Premier League leaders believed they could return to winning ways against Brentford. Ultimately, they were deprived of hope by a bizarre mistake by the VAR referee.
Arsenal hurt by referees. They forgot to draw the offside line. Oddity
The fans gathered at the Emirates Stadium saw no goals in the first half. The first goal came in the 66th minute. Then Leandro Trossard sent the ball into the net, for whom it was the first goal in the colors of Arsenal. The Belgian joined Arteta from Brighton in the winter for €30m.
The hosts did not enjoy the lead for long. Just eight minutes later, an equalizing goal was scored, although in fact it should not have been allowed. But let’s start from the beginning. In the 74th minute the referee awarded a free kick to Brentford. After the cross, there was confusion in the Arsenal penalty area. In this situation, Christian Norgaard behaved most consciously, who passed the ball in front of the goal, and then Ivan Toney with a header put it in the net.
Arteta’s players demanded that Norgaard’s offside position be whistled. And they were right, because the replays show that the Dane is in an illegal place. However, the VAR did not see the offside and awarded the goal, which infuriated Arsenal.
As it turned out later, Lee Mason, the referee responsible for video verification, did not show up in this situation. The Englishman quite surprisingly forgot to draw the offside line. Instead, he focused on on Gabriel’s clash with Ethan Pinnock directly from a free-kick.
– VAR were looking for offside and a possible offense by Ethan Pinnock. The foul was never seen. Also offside, which was a big mistake. The truth is that VAR didn’t draw the offside line, which counts as human error. Had he done so, the goal would have been disallowed,” Chris Foy, a former Premier League referee, told The Mirror.
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After the meeting with the referees, Mikel Arteta was especially furious. “I just watched the replay and he was offside. Has anyone explained why this decision was made? NO. It’s frustrating but it will probably be sorted out next week.” As the journalists of “The Mirror” note, it is quite surprising that the referees did not see offside, especially since they checked the replays for a long time and carefully. “Somehow they managed to miss the most important moment of the match. Arsenal victim of a serious referee error,” we read.
1:1 and Arteta’s team lost two points. Its lead over Manchester City has shrunk to six points. Rivals will be able to compensate for the losses on Sunday, when they face Aston Villa.
Source: Sport.PL
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
