The PGMOL have decided against publicly responding to Arsenal FC‘s recent statement on refereeing decisions and standards. This is according to a report from the Daily Mail.
The report claims that the Gunners and referee chiefs are in disagreement, with the club set to provide potential evidence of decisions they believe have gone against them.
Arsenal on the wrong side of some close refereeing decisions
There have been a few incidents this year that the north London club may feel aggrieved about.
One of those was a goal for Brentford in February that should’ve been disallowed for offside, but it stood. Eventually, the Bees drew 1-1 in a key title clash. The decision was later admitted to be a fault by VAR Lee Mason on the day.
There was also an incident with Mateo Kovacic this season where he wasn’t sent even after two dangerous tackles.
Then there was the clash with Newcastle over the weekend, which had plenty of incidents to discuss after the match when it came to officiating. First was a fiery affair as Bruno Guimaraes left Jorginho on the ground. Bruno lunged into a tackle on the latter with a forearm and elbow to the head. Another check cleared the incident though, advising against a sending off for potential foul play or violent conduct.
The VAR made a further three checks in the second half for the winning goal. There were doubts over whether the ball had stayed in play, if there was a potential offside or a foul in the build-up. None of those three could be proven and as a result, Anthony Gordon’s finish stood.
Arteta, Arsenal and PGMOL
That goal was a deciding moment and it led to Mikel Arteta slamming the officials. He told Sky Sports: “It’s a disgrace. It’s embarrassing. That’s how I feel and that’s how everybody feels in that [dressing] room. You cannot imagine the amount of messages we’ve got saying this cannot continue. It’s embarrassing. I’m sorry, embarrassing.”
Arsenal later put out a statement in which they supported the words of their manager and questioned the standards of officials. The decision since for the PGMOL has been against addressing it publicly as they look to deal with the response.
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