Morning all.
I haven’t seen the full game so can’t comment about how Arsenal played yesterday but I have seen highlights including Brentford’s goal which should never have been allowed.
This photo is when the free kick is delivered.
This is the second phase when Norgaard appeared offside too before crossing the ball for Toney to equalise.
According to reports, Lee Mason, operating VAR, forgot to apply the offside lines when reviewing the goal which is why he didn’t spot either of the offside decisions. Oh, and what about the foul on Gabriel by Pinnock. When Match Of The Day lambast VAR for a decision which went against Arsenal, well…….
VAR should be getting decisions like the above right. During the West Ham and Chelsea game, what looked like an obvious and goal preventing handball was not given against David Moyes team which denied Chelsea a win. Across London, Brighton had a goal disallowed for offside but VAR placed the offside lines on the wrong player
These aren’t subjective, they are written in the rules and in my opinion, pretty easy to get right. To actually review a goal for offside without using the tools for that specific incident is shocking. VAR is every clubs safety net and it’s failing. The people operating it are failing to do their job properly and ultimately, it could cost football clubs millions of pounds.
Away from VAR though, it was great to see Leandro Trossard get his first goal for the club and I don’t think it’ll be long before we see him start a match. Whether that’s on the left or right I don’t know but surely there’s a risk that a few of our players are running out of gas.
Up next is Man City on Wednesday night at The Emirates. City face Aston Villa later this afternoon and I’m desperately hoping Unai Emery’s team can do his old club a favour. After Totts we’re thrashed by Leicester City and Newcastle Utd drew their fixture yesterday, only Man Utd and Man City can take advantage as far as top four places go. Utd are away to Leeds and bearing in mind the two clubs played out a draw at Old Trafford just a few days ago, anything could happen in that one.
The internet will go into negative overdrive about Arsenal after dropping two points at home I’m sure but as much as I’m disappointed, I kind of expected it. Admittedly, I didn’t expect us to drop points against Brentford but then again, why not because they too have been on a really good run. Every club drops points at some stage in a season but it doesn’t necessarily mean the wheels have come off. It just means there’s more work to be done on the training pitch. This group of players are the same ones who got us to the top of the league and they haven’t suddenly become rubbish overnight. Unlike Lee Mason of course. Actually, he’s always been rubbish.
Mikel Arteta always said there’d be bumps in the road and we’ve certainly hit one of them. I’m sure we’ll hit one or two more over the next three and a half months too but it’s likely that other clubs will too. We just have to ensure we drop less points than those below us.
Catch up in the comments.
These “errors” are becoming a little too commonplace in prominent circumstances to be so easily and glibly swept away.
This is the same VAR ref who painstakingly trawled through the build up play for Martinelli’s goal at OT to be chalked off for a “foul” that didn’t even vaguely qualify as a clear and obvious error.
The biased commentators don’t help either – like claiming there was no foul when Saliba was being dragged back with his jersey being pulled (visible both live and on replays) and then pulled down by the shoulder when one of the Brentford players was racing to try and break past him but wouldn’t have beaten Salibi in a straight race to the ball because Salibi was already in front of him.
Yes, Brentford could have won that game, but its not for the Lee Mason’s of this world to “rectify” things to their own agendas.
Morning Rico. We should have defended the free kick situation a lot better. From what I saw, the award of a free kick itself was suspicious and the penalty box wrestling that Brentford indulged in all afternoon should have been stamped on early by the ref. But he seemed content to let it go.
I used to think that I understood the offside law but yesterday I realised, not for the first time, that I don’t and that it has zero consistency. Depending on what I am still unclear. Brentford should have score at least one goal in the first half but it was their players who missed. It wasn’t decided by some erroneous decision made at VAR level.
Yesterday, it turns out, was a travesty of the Official’s making.
But we still should have defended it better.
As Toney was holding Saliba and then rolled him to the ground it was never a foul for them in the first place , but it is understandable that it was given because Toney is nothing if he isn’t streetwise and despite his ability Saliba is still learning.
As for the offsides and Lee Mason
. Remember who was on VAR when we lost our opener against Man United , yes one and the same Lee Mason (born 29 October 1971) is a retired referee from Bolton, Greater Manchester.
Anyone smell a rat ?
Wednesday it’s Stuart Attwell but stand by Jared Gillet on VAR.
From all the incidents which are changing games results you have to wonder if 1 there is a corruption charge and 2 a potential court case for all the punters and bookies that are losing money over the ineptitude.
Morning Adam, all.
I didn’t think Saliba committed a foul either. I can accept losing because it happens but when it’s clear the officials are wrong, it’s hard to take.
These things happen, without VAR the goal would still have stood. The problem is that Mason will probably still be there in the morning. Exactly the same thing happened in Spain a few weeks ago, the official was immediately publically sacked. If that happened to Mason now it wouldn’t change the result but I would feel a bit better.
Morning Rico and all.
Yes, VAR cost us the win,
How ever I don’t think we deserved to win either,
it’s not that we lost again, it’s how we lost. Arteta needs a good hard think about what is going wrong, we had shots at goal that wound up almost in the top of stadium, passes that were easily cut off, and as I said yesterday Brentford read Saka like a book, just about every time he would run down the sideline then stop take 3 steps backward then try to cut in to get on his left foot and they would block him or even take the ball off him.
Brian, he’ll probably be applauded.
Hi Geoff.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12809211/var-did-not-fully-investigate-disputed-brentford-equaliser-in-1-1-draw-at-arsenal
This and other media outlets are running this story, perhaps , maybe the furore might force some change , but I doubt it.
By the way Geoff , we didn’t lose.
There’s the other incidents too, certainly the Brighton goal which was disallowed.
Perhaps retrospective action will come into play at some stage in the future when human error is to blame.
https://twitter.com/jamesbenge/status/1624763289048608768?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
So they have apologised to both us and Brighton , maybe the West Ham hand ball will be next .
Not that it will do anyone any good.
And we thought things might improve when Riley left.
An apology is worth nothing is it.. It almost makes it feel worse.
The latest most recent apology too.
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/12809315/arsenal-victims-of-another-var-error-against-brentford-how-many-points-has-it-cost-them-this-season
It’s all very well for the PGMOL to apologise for their VAR errors, but that does not do anything to improve the situation.
The officials who made the incorrect decisions should be stood down until they have been completely retrained and have passed an examination on the laws of the game and can demonstrate that they understand fully their responsibilities and the protocols that govern the use of VAR.
The FA and the Premier League should hold an enquiry into the working of the entire VAR organisation.
I have often wondered if the PGMOL have deliberately made a mess of VAR to get such an outcry that it is removed . Under Riley I was virtually convinced and I wonder if Webb’s new broom is finding it hard to sweep clean ( so to speak ) It is noticeable that the age of the VAR officials making mistakes are all of the old Riley group.
Do they want their autonomous power back ? Or have I been reading too many conspiracy theories ?
Rico coming a draw to Brentford at home is as good as loosing, we have dropped 5 points in the last 2 games.
and I recon we will drop another 3 points against Man City if we play like we did the last 2 matches.
Former referee Hackett claims The PGMOL should sack Lee Mason, as this is the 3rd time, he has made a bad decision and 2 of the 3 times have cost Arsenal points.
Now it emerges that Mason “forgot” to draw the lines that would have shown the Brentford equaliser was offside. There is no doubt in my mind that he should be sacked!
I know Mike Reilly came in for some stick over his management of VAR, but did he ever preside over such a weekend of blatantly bad decisions?
In the case of the Brentford equaliser, it must be noted that Mason was not alone when he made a series of errors he had a, so far unidentified, assistant VAR sitting alongside him and there were other officials looking on.
I don’t think we can expect much of an improvement in officiating on Wednesday, the VAR scheduled to oversee our vital match with City is Brookes, the man responsible for the cock up at the Palace game this weekend.
Morning all
New post up
Not really Geoff. We could have played better but let’s not forget we did enough in the end to win the game but we’re cheated out of three points.