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.