Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal to be handed 'two points back' after VAR horror show

Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal to be handed ‘two points back’ after the VAR horror show in their 1-1 draw with Brentford at the Emirates on Saturday.

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Brentford’s equaliser was only allowed to stand after it was revealed that VAR official Lee Mason forgot to draw the lines that would have shown Christian Norgaard was offside in the build-up to Ivan Toney’s goal.

PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) was forced to apologise to Arsenal after the match in what was a serious dent to the Gunners’ Premier League title hopes.

The north London club next face title rivals Manchester City on Wednesday and when quizzed if he was ‘satisfised’ with PGMOL’s apology, Arteta said: ‘At the end of the game, after analysing all of the evidence that we had and the images, we had huge anger and disappointment.

‘Because that was not a human error. That was a big, big, big [instance of] not considering or understanding your job and that’s not acceptable, I’m sorry.

‘And that cost Arsenal two points and that’s not going to be restored. We’re going to have to find those two points somewhere else in the league.

‘But at the same time, we appreciate the apology, we appreciate the explanations – which were really open to be fair.

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‘And we got a lot of sympathy from a lot of colleagues in the industry – in football – that they are talking that we cannot play with integrity of the game in the way that we do.

‘And that’s it, we have to move on. That certainly has made the players, the staff and our fans even stronger, and with more desire to pass this hurdle that they put on us. So we are ready for it.’

Asked if he was satisfied after speaking with Howard Webb, he added: ‘I will only be satisfied if they give me the two points back, which is not going to be the case!

‘He’s decided because the ball is so high, he cannot head the ball so he’s not interfering with play because he’s not touched it. Does he impact on a defender? I think the VAR looks at it and he’s behind it, so it’s difficult.

‘He judges it as not a foul, which is a subjective element. He’s concentrated on that so much that I think he switches off then. He’s forgotten to complete it through.

‘It’s not panic, but it’s ‘I’ve taken three minute and haven’t found an offence, people are going to wonder why I’ve checked it so often’ – he then doesn’t check the Norgaard offside, and that’s where the problem occurred.’

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