Mikel Arteta cut a frustrated figure after this evening’s 2-1 defeat to Wolves.
He saw his side play extremely well in the first half, but in the third minutes of two minutes of added time, referee Craig Pawson sent off David Luiz and awarded the home side a penalty from which they equalised.
It was a decision which baffled the Arsenal boss, who felt if there was contact, it was by the Wolves player on Luiz.
“If there’s any contact it’s him with David,” said Arteta.
“I don’t know if they have a different angle what they have or you have. That’s where the disappointment is coming from.
“It’s hard enough to win football games in the league and those big decisions are like that but it’s nothing we can change at the moment.
“I’m sure that they made the decision based on something they’ve seen but unfortunately I’m sitting here expecting to see something, but I’ve not seen anything.”
At a key moment it completely changed the momentum of the fixture, something the manager was quizzed about afterwards.
“Of course it changed the game,” he said.
“You play with ten men for 45 minutes without your central defender against this opposition of course it changes the game.
“We were really animated at half time because we really wanted to win the game, the boys were so convinced to have a real go and we didn’t concede any chances but Moutinho scored a worldie, it’s 2-1, then Bernd comes out and hits the ball with his hands it’s a clear red card.
“We’re down to nine players and it’s almost impossible to win the game.”
As for an appeal ahead of the trip to Aston Villa at the weekend, it sounds as if they’ll give it serious consideration.
“Well I’m standing here I would say yes let’s go straight away,” he said, “but we have to speak with legal at the club and decide what the best thing is to do.”
Just taken out of our hands in the most bizarre way possible. When was the last time we had to contend with having only 9 men in the league? 2015 v Chelsea or am I missing anything more recent?
They bring in VAR to supposedly help get rid of bad decisions and spend seconds making one.
Where is the benefit of doubt especially with double jeopardy in place.
Pawson thought “It’s Luiz so he must of tripped him”. Moss takes most of the blame as he had the chance to look at it closely but was in too much of a rush to gorge some half time food in his box.
undoubtedly 2 of the worst 3 refs about plus Dean obviously.
Probably went for a piss … or a pint. Too close to half time to bother. Ffs.
You could still win games with 10 men.. BIG TEAMS which once upon a time we were…
That’s such a stupid argument, against the point being made. Lemme summarize it for you, VAR was meant to avoid us playing with 10 men in the first place, but it didn’t.
Oh, do fuck off.
I think we could have. Unfortunately, along with the red card, we also concede a penalty beyond the 2 minute injury time. Moutinho then scores a worldie right after half time.
And while you are at appeal against Craig Pawson as fit to be a ref in the EPL.
he couldn’t wait to get out the red and fatty Moss in the box backed him up. Disgrace
And fucking manu win 9-0 against 9 men with VAR going totaly with them
Feeling sick
I was wondering who was VAR. Should have known it was Moss. If it wasn’t him it would’ve been Coote, but he was the 4th official.
I take it by disgrace you meant dishonest 😉
I am in complete agreement with everyone saying this was not a foul and ultimately not a red card. Ridiculous decision really. However, I don’t think an appeal would be successful if it were to happen. The boneheads at the PMGOL would have to admit that it was their incompetence that directly led to a loss.This would in turn put their decision to award a penalty under question. On another what is with some of the Wolves fans gloating that Luiz was sent off? His head clash with Jimenez was a result of an unfortunate 50/50 challenge. It is nothing… Read more »
A defender clearly 1m behind an attacker who is clear through on goal that gets clipped by that defender (or clips the defender in his shooting backswing – which is what happened) is NOT a 50-50 challenge. It’s a penalty. All this happened because David Luiz ran in behind Nevez. He ran into an area where his legs might be. If there is contact (which there was – doesn’t matter if its minimal) it is a foul. That foul prevented a clear goal scoring chance and he was the last man. Nevez was shooting and Luiz impeded his shooting leg… Read more »
@Daveo – I have no issue with people saying it was a penalty but the double jeopardy rule was implented couple of seasons back where denying goalscoring oportunity is only a red card if the foul was committed deliberately. Otherwise its a booking. So by the letter of the law you can say yes it was a penalty, but much of the ‘up in arms’ is that it shouldn’t have been a red.
The reason he was sent off was because he didn’t make an attempt on the ball. That is the rule. That has been clearly stated by referees (on broadcasts) and again today in the press. There may well be an issue with that part of the rule, but by the letter of the law that is EXACTLY what happened. And you are still not considering the fact that if Luiz had have made a straight run towards the goal and not in behind Nevez no contact would have occurred. Leno may have made the save too. That was 100% Luiz’s… Read more »
I appreciate the insight! My personal thought is contact was accidental and the double punishment was therefore harsh. What we are in complete agreement about though is his pathetic positioning and decision making that was responsible for everything that followed!! 🙂
Don’t know what game you lot were watching because on my BT coverage it was Willian Jose not Nevez who was the attacker involved.
“Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offending player is cautioned if the offence was an attempt to play the ball; in all other circumstances (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball etc.) the offending player must be sent off.“
Nevez ???
I agree that I don’t think an appeal will be successful – even though it was obviously an accident, listening to the old ref guy at HT it sounds like it’s more a case of a stupidly crafted rule.
That’s not my understanding of the rule (a quick Google suggests that the BBC said in 2016 when the triple jeopardy rule change was made that “players committing accidental fouls that deny a goalscoring chance will now be cautioned”) but there might have been some daft rule change – I’m not clued up enough.
Appeal what, please Luis should get 3 match ban 🤣🤣
If your gonna be a dick, at least spell his name right
*you’re 🤣
This is excellent, btw.
correct our own typo made calling out another’s typo.
A thousand reccs for you, my friend!
This is excellent, btw.
Comment on someone correcting their own typo made calling out another’s typo…..and then make your own typo. Superb.
Troll?
Oh Eche, I appreciate when you’re feeling lonely it’s difficult to bang one out over your Harry Kane poster when your older brother is on the bottom bunk. But please, give it a go rather than posting on an Arsenal fan site for your kicks.
Err Swiftly, I think he is an Arsenal supporter, that’s why he wants Luiz banned for 3 games like lots of us! Sorry, but when you’re running like that, you know where your legs are in relation to a guy in front of you. It was really clumsy and his clumsiness has cost us far too many points since he’s been here. Enough’s enough.
I don’t think you’re sorry at all.
I could go two footed on you right now
I didn’t see any contact- have to assume it’s Luiz’ reputation
even if it’s reputation, that was a shady penalty. I remember auba’s tackle on someone which was given yellow was replayed for like 5 minutes and turned to red. This was farce.
Watch sky sports or whatever it was, they had the ref explaining the red card. That’s exactly what he boiled it down to “this is David’s 4th or 5th time so he should know better.” Bunch of f*cking incompetent twats.
BT*. But yes, a player’s reputation should go out the window in a match. Who cares if it’s David Luiz or Miguel Azeez with that penalty last night. Both players should be judged the same
Go one bolder, Mikel. Make Arsenal the club to take an official stand against VAR and campaign for removing it in its entirety.
There is nothing wrong with VAR. VAR provides incontrovertible evidence, in this case, that any contact was entirely accidental. The problem is with the so called humans then interpreting that same evidence exactly as they want with no reference to what actually happened.
This is bent.
Exactly this.. Its human error that’s the problem..we should do away with var and let the errors be made in real time like the old days. At least then we could celebrate a goal properly.
Nothing wrong with VAR as a system. The issue is with incompetent twats using it to justify bullshit decisions and not as an independent review.
They write “clear and obvious error” in the rule as a way to provide them with whatever leeway they need to get whatever outcome they like.
Wenger had it spot on. Whole bunch are dishonest to their federation.
Not even sure they are incompetent. Just seems to me that it’s been set up to fail.
The commentators seemed to think it was a clear an obvious error, so something doesn’t add up here.
Red card decisions and penalty decisions should require a monitor review from the ref. How the fck is a Pen+Red not reviewed more than 5 seconds
Just before HT too. Whats the hurry??
Moss had eaten so much pudding he needed a urgent halftime dump … then shat all over the Arse. A disgrace to his Federation …
Someone needed a beer or a piss.
Agree. Ludicrous that the ref didn’t get told to look at this again. Can’t really blame him for thinking from his one viewing at speed that this was one of those deliberate collisions from behind, engineered to look accidental, but it really wasn’t and that’s pretty clear from the replays.
When you see things like this its hard not to think scam and fix…Why wouldn;t he check. The players must have been screaming murder for him to do so..Which means he chose to just send a man off sand give a pen because he felt like it. Than the cunt in the back Jon Moss must hvae gone for an early pie and missed it.
Especially after they spent far longer reviewing the offside Laca for Saka’s disallowed goal. There wasn’t a rush then…
You just know VAR would have a 2 minute look at the situation if it was Man U. And Pawson would probably have a look at it too. It’s ridiculous how that decision stands.
And the wolves striker would get sent off for simulation too if it’s united
What is he talking about?! Contact is clear and obvious. But it should not be the red card…
It denies a goal scoring chance, is that not how the rule is written?
It is. I don’t understand the whole discussion. It’s a stupid rule maybe but everyone knows it exists and it’s plain stupid to put the ref in a situation in which he has to make a decision. Only Luiz to blame here, not for the first – or second – or third time, tired of it, happy when his contract expires in the summer, gutted if we should really extend it.
Absolutely, this place has turned completely loopy. I guess it’s just reactionary and people looking for a scapegoat, still all this conspiracy talk is ugly. 50% Blame on Luiz – terrible positioning, even more terrible decision to run in behind Nevez into the area where his legs are. There is absolutely contact on Nevez’s shooting backswing (both players go down). Penalty. Red. 50% Blame on Arteta for playing Luiz. Luiz is a really good defender 95% of the time, the other 5% he is a game destroyer. He tried to do this against Southampton – twice in one action, Holding… Read more »
Not any more, they changed it to remove double jeopardy. Now its a penalty and a yellow not red
He said that the contact was the striker on Luiz and not vice versa, dont just read the headline
Well the deed has been done. .
Harsh Red…
But I don’t see any need for an appeal..
Gabriel nd Mari re back… Luiz can stay at home..
After all he was already at home…wen podence gave Jose the pass….
Lastly I want to really ask…
Wat is the brain behind the Pepe sub??
He was our best player ffs
If anything take bellerin off for auba put saka lb and have Cedric at rb. At least then we could put one of auba and pepe on the half way line. Especially crazy as auba offers no hold up play whereas pepe can at least hold on to it.
Coachie 🤣🤣🤣
Pepe was working his ass off and looked really up for it. Too bad.
And auba was piss poor. He’s a luxury player like ozil. You can’t afford him playing with 10. He hardly even made an effort to chase any opponent down despite having the freshest legs. Not captain material
I can’t blame the ref here it’s var that’s the issue I thourt it was a pen and red at normal speed, it’s var that’s wrong. Just watched the United game and the same thing but got reviewed for at least 5 mins trying to find a reasson to give them a pen ridiculous
On the other hand my first view had me thinking that the Wolves player initiated contact and then dived.
Thourt. Wow really?
You’re getting sacked in the morning, MA.
Or at least, you should be.
Oh ok pal.It was Arteta fault Leno had a fucking brainstorm.Still the better side with 10 men but with 9 you are finished. Excellent performance from the team until added time in the first half.
Oh Lord, please send the kids back to school soon.
Oh fuck off. Not like Arteta has any control over us ending up with 9 players on the pitch.
We looked bright and full of chance creation before the farce that was the sending off. Arteta has managed to keep us defensively sound whilst improving us in an attacking sense, which is exactly what we wanted to see.
Let’s not take a single result and throw our toys out the pram. We can just try and make another winning run, starting next game.
You didnt leave with ozil?
Worth a try certainly, but I’m not sure it will succeed.
Honestly i really thought a pandemic would set things in place in terms of relation….. But here i am worrying/crying/fuming bout the Arsenal like more than ever because it’s literally the only thing u look forward to in this feckin numb times. Today’s result, especially if u consider the first 44 minutes, absolutely devasting. Hope the players and the coach have a fitter mindset tho.
The crazy thing is, if Luiz had dived in and smashed through the guy’s legs, he’d have only got yellow.
Farcical. I could barely see contact on the replay
Appeal, Arteta, we all know what those cnuts are going to do: back the referee. Absolute joke.
BTW: those of us who criticised Arteta for his team selection in the FA Cup tie at Southampton look justified now, don’t we? We threw that game away to “concentrate on the league” and now top-four is almost certainly gone. We could have still been in the FA Cup right now. Yet again, all our eggs are in the Europa League instead.
Yeah. We would have had an fa cup game vs…. wolves away. Which we just lost. Or did you leave that out to suit your nonsense narrative?
He did admit that five of the guys dropped couldn’t have played anyway (I’m guessing four for fitness and Auba for his family situation) and the last thing you’d want to do is force the issue and have those guys break down long-term, which would risk not only the league, but the FA Cup and even the Europa League, too.
Its a no win situation. When we played Partay against spurs and he broke down, Arteta got shit for risking him.
Maybe an unpopular opinion but last year when we down against Chelsea we were more positive. Arteta showed little more zest in his team selection. Xhaka could been the left center back and we could introduced Martinelli or Auba. Martinelli is better in air too. Anyways its a bit of a brain fade, not entirely unusual for Arsenal in last few seasons.
Not unpopular but entireley pointless
Great suggestion in hindsight
Good. He should appeal. Even if (ha, as if there’s even a chance) he doesn’t win the appeal, this kind of bullshit with VAR basically being useless, if not corrupt, needs to be called out.
Wow Southampton….again.
Also well well past 2 mins added on
We should appeal against Leno’s card too as it did not deny a goalscoring opportunity – the incident happened nowhere near the goal.
Not only that. It wasn’t a deliberate handball
How was it not deliberate? He realised he fucked up by rushing out got himself in a bad position and had to move his hand/arm towards the ball or it would have gone past him.
Abysmal refereeing, VAR should seen there was no contact, I’ve checked myself watched it a douzen times, and if there was contact made, it was the shooting leg from jose that touched Luiz’ knee as he reached backwards to shoot. Best thing was when he missed the shot somehow and fell down like a sack of potatos. Correct me if I’m wrong, but in all honesty, the refs seem to get worse everytime Arsenal is playing
A decision that killed the game for us. Wolves offered little to nothing before that incident and in the replays I couldn’t see any contact whatsoever. Guaranteed if it was a Man U player involved there would have been a 5 minute check to clear his name. Shocking decision that cost cost us a game.
Challenge both reds.
The first was barely any contact and the decision was made too quickly considering that.
The second was a definite yellow but it was not a definite goal scoring opportunity.
More than that, I just simply hate VAR and wish they would get pressure to be rid of it. Some decisions will go against us as before but it feels that much worse when they don’t employ it properly
The law is an ass. So are the referees in this instance. Just glad that no one got a second yellow.
As for VAR … we’ve had green washing, but this is a new level of duplicity … or humble incompetence. (Whether in interpretation or rules writing.)
No contact but where was he in the first place.
He let the striker in.
As mentioned, we should be starting Gabriel. not to say he is without fault either but he is the future and has the pace to keep up.
I can;t see contract…Arteta needs to get his head together on this.
Why on earth would he want to keep Luiz another year?
Ban referee Pawason for life
Karmic payback for the David Luiz – Raul Jimenez head clash. Payback (in a small way!) for losing Jimenez to a horrific injury. Payback to Arsenal for not just letting Luiz continue playing, but then letting him drive himself home after giving him 7 stitches in his head.
I’m kidding. Kinda.
Thia on the top bruno dickhead fernandes’s red card on xhaka
Question for FA – Two players are standing still, one in front of the other. The player in front lifts his foot and moves it backward kicking the player behind him. Has a foul been committed? If so, which player committed the foul?
Great point. The problem is that the FA, PL, PGMOL would just contort themselves through Jesuitical argument to somehow come up with the most abstruse reasoning* by which their decision is correct.
And then BT s resident referee, Walton, would pretend to go through an analytical process, weighing up pros and cons, before agreeing with whatever ridiculous decision the powers that be had come up with.
simple acid test – if Robbie Savage agrees with the verdict, the verdict is wrong.
Don’t go asking those crusty old cunts difficult questions like that.
A far more pertinent question for them would be “What the actual fuck do any of you actually do to improve the game…….?”
He should put in an Appeal, because there was no contact, in spite of what that fucking idiot commentator on BT Sport was dribbling out.
That was neither a penalty or a red card situation.
Fucking refs. We win a few games and they can’t hack it. It’s always been the same since the dawn of time.
That red card was a complete joke
We were fucking robbed. No two ways about it. If Luiz was rightly on the pitch the Leno fuck up wouldn’t have happened as that was Luiz’s position he ran out to. Still a dumb thing to do by Leno. He clearly misjudged the flight of the ball so it was a case of either try to get something on it and risk a red, or risk another Wolves goal. But no way Luiz should have had a red earlier. It wasn’t even a foul. Problem is, they make these mistakes and I’m certain that red will be rescinded on… Read more »
You know what, Italian league used to be bad with its corrupt referees and such especially during the calciopoli. But look at them now. They are the best league in the world in 2020 according to IFFHS. They have improved a lot and now Premier League has gone downhill
Yesterday’s game is gone, no matter how painful. I really, really hope these scum are relegated, failing which we absolutely murder them next season. Perhaps break this 9-0 thing going around. I would enjoy Nuno Esperito Santo wishing to melt into the ground after a horror show in the same way I would enjoy Mourinho being destroyed.
Apologies, I am feeling particularly vicious towards the thirteen men we played against yesterday.
It’s pretty amazing that FA had managed to f*ck up the game in such way and managed to do things even worse with VAR. The idea of the game is flushed down the toilet and replaced with a surrealistic attitude towards the rule book combined with utter incompetence. It’s no link between offence and the penalty. Touching another players forehead with your own? Violent conduct and Red card. Trying to split your opponents achilles in half ( Fernandes) , a part of the game.. ( it helps to play for MU or Liverpool)
There are several issues going on here. Some are to do with the incident, others are to do with a player’s reputation. The did he/didn’t he commit the fould has been done to death. The contact WAS initiated by the Wolves player and he had already missed the ball (over ran it), when he fell over. At this point Luiz was nowhere near him as he had run into (Xhaka?). The VAR by Moss was literally two seconds and didn’t view the who piece of play. So why didn’t Pawson go and look himself? Because he had already made his… Read more »