Mikel Arteta accuses referees of ‘changing the rules’ after controversial Brentford goal
Mikel Arteta accused the referees of “changing the rules” after he argued that Brentford’s equalizing goal against Arsenal should have been disallowed due to offside.
Arsenal were unable to secure a win and had to settle for a tie after Ivan Toney scored a header that cancelled out Leandro Trossard’s first goal for the Gunners. Brentford deservedly left the Emirates Stadium with a 1-1 draw.
Despite losing last week to struggling Everton, Arteta’s team is six points ahead of Manchester City. But their biggest competitors in the title race will host Aston Villa on Sunday and play at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday in a match that could be crucial.
Arteta believed that a lengthy VAR review for Toney’s goal should have resulted in Ethan Pinnock’s effort being ruled offside.
“I just looked back and it is offside, yes,” he said.
“The action when you get blocked when you are offside. You cannot block if you are offside.
“I’m hoping the cameras and the visuals, maybe it looks like there were two actions. I don’t know. It’s too late, it’s fine, the goal was allowed and we dropped two points.
“I’m saying the second one (an offside call against Christian Norgaard) – I don’t know because you have to see the line the way they see it with the cameras. I don’t know. It’s irrelevant. It’s gone.
“We always assess the game with them (the Premier League) and we give our views and our points. But it’s too late.
“They will probably give an explanation later in the week. Today we haven’t got one. You have to apply certain principles in defending and you do that by sticking to the rules, suddenly you change the rules and then you have to change your principles.
“So tell us before so then you don’t hide the line that high, because you’re always going to have an advantage if you get blocked.”
Mikel Arteta accuses referees of ‘changing the rules’ after controversial Brentford goal
