Morning all.
After a shambolic weekend of officiating (more on that anon), Man City beat Aston Villa yesterday to move within three points of Arsenal. Ahead of our game on Wednesday, the heat and the pressure have been turned up a notch.
Of course, had Lee Mason done his job, that pressure would be slightly less intense as we’d have had a bigger cushion at the top of the table. Instead, he simply didn’t do the very basic thing he’s employed to do and Brentford’s twice offside goal was allowed to count. Again, let me make it clear: I think Brentford were very good on Saturday, and our performance didn’t necessarily merit all three points, but as a wise man said once: Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.
Yesterday, the PGMOL (the refereeing body) released a statement, which read:
PGMOL can confirm its Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb has contacted both Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion to acknowledge and explain the significant errors in the VAR process in their respective Premier League fixtures on Saturday.
Both incidents, which were due to human error and related to the analysis of offside situations, are being thoroughly reviewed by PGMOL.
They can take their acknowledge and their explain, and shove it up their hole, frankly. That won’t give us back the two points. I mentioned it was a bad weekend for officiating, and Brighton’s perfectly good goal being disallowed because they drew the offside lines in the wrong place is, at least, the sort of error that can happen. It’s still abysmal, but you can understand a lot more than a complete and utter failure to draw the lines at all.
Focus is on Lee Mason, and rightly so, because this isn’t the first time he’s got it badly wrong, but he wasn’t alone in the VAR booth. There’s an assistant there too. Did he ‘forget’ to draw the lines too? That seems doubtful to me, given how basic that part of the job was, so did Mason overrule him if he was reminded? Then it becomes more than human error. You can’t forget if the person sitting beside you says ‘Er, what about the lines?’. Then it’s not an error at all, it’s deliberate.
Which, I understand, is heading into the realms of conspiracy a bit, but it’s a bit like a pilot on approach forgetting to put the landing gear down. You would imagine the co-pilot might say something. I already find it hard to believe that somebody trained to do a very specific job can simply forget to do the most fundamental part of it, and I find it nigh on impossible to believe that two people would have the same brain fart at the same time.
Offsides + VAR needs lines. Even without them, the footage shows an offside pretty clearly – BUT, if Lee Mason had any doubts about it, how would he have made sure? Lines! So, something doesn’t stack up for me. They can cite ‘human error’, and I think we all understand that can happen, but I’m not convinced this was simply incompetence. I just can’t see how it’s that and only that.
So, what now? Well, nothing. The PGMOL will probably give Mason a few weeks off before he’s back in to perpetrate his nonsense again. Howard Webb can explain all he wants, maybe even apologise, but the result stands and the two points remain dropped. This weekend we’ve seen evidence that this organisation is not fit for purpose. Arsenal. Brighton. A West Ham player – not the goalkeeper – literally making a save. A Southampton player given a second yellow card for nothing, just at the whim of a referee who didn’t like the cut of his jib. It’s pathetic.
That said, I have written before about Mikel Arteta fostering a bit of a siege mentality at Arsenal and maybe, if there is any kind of silver lining, it’s that it might be useful in that regard. This is an actual injustice – very far removed from feeling aggrieved that years of alleged widespread, institutional cheating have led to charges from the organisation you have cheated all that time. Arteta should go large in his dressing room on how in 1991 Arsenal were, in unprecedented fashion, docked two points but still went on to win the league. Add this latest bullshit to the FA charges we’ve been hit with this season, and the previous VAR cock-up.
A scoreline on the whiteboard before Wednesday’s game: FA Charges 3-2 PGMOL.
Maybe we never do it the easy way ourselves at this club, but goddammit they make sure it’s not easy anyway. Arsenal worked so hard to get in front on Saturday, and maybe Brentford would have scored a different goal before the end, but I hope the manager and the players feel that the two points weren’t dropped as much robbed. I hope whatever anger and frustration that engenders is channeled into Wednesday – and the rest of the season – and is evident in our performances.
We’re not getting those points back, so we’ll just have to go out win more of them.
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James and I are recording the Arsecast Extra for you later on this morning. Keep an eye out for the call for questions on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog on Twitter with the hashtag #arsecastextra – or if you’re on Arseblog Member on Patreon, leave your question in the #arsecast-extra-questions channel on our Discord server.
We should have the podcast for you around lunchtime. Until then.
