As a response to the contentious events that occurred over the course of the weekend, the Premier League has issued a statement in which they want more from their referees.
The fact that VAR Lee Mason failed to draw the relevant offside lines for Brentford’s equalizer during their 1-1 draw with the Gunners on Saturday had an effect on the league leaders Arsenal. Midfielder Christian Norgaard, who assisted goalscorer Ivan Toney, was clearly offside in the build-up to Brentford’s goal, and Mason forgot to draw the relevant offside lines.
Now, the league has issued a statement in which they criticize the refereeing and ask the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) to investigate and provide explanations for a number of events.
The statement from the league stated as follows: “The Premier League is sorry that PGMOL did not meet those expectations last weekend. The Premier League sets high standards.” As a direct consequence of this, the Premier League demanded that the PGMOL investigate and provide an explanation for a number of occurrences that occurred during the most recent games round. Following conversations with PGMOL and yesterday’s review meeting with Select Group One, we endorse PGMOL’s views on correcting these concerns in order to improve future results.
Mikel Arteta, voiced his displeasure with the refereeing and admitted that he won’t be satisfied with the result unless the Gunners are awarded two additional points toward their overall tally in the league.
Arteta said, “We ended the game after analysing all the evidence that we’ve had with the images with a huge anger and disappointment because that wasn’t a human error, that was a big not conceiving and understanding your job and that’s not acceptable, I’m sorry.”
“This will result in a loss of two points for Arsenal, which cannot be recovered. It is going to be necessary for us to look for those two points in the league somewhere. On the other hand, we are grateful for the explanations and the apology, and we have received a lot of support from our peers in the industry and in football, who have told us that we cannot continue to play the game with the same level of integrity as we have in the past.”
“That wraps it up. It is time for us to move on. That has, without a doubt, made the players, staff, and supporters of our team stronger, and it has also fueled their desire to see us overcome this obstacle that they have set before us. Therefore, we are prepared for it.