Arsenal Faults VAR Decision That Led To Club’s Defeat At Newcastle, Demands Better Officiating

Following its defeat at Saint James’ Park on Saturday, Arsenal FC has faulted the Virtual Assistant Referee for allowing Newcastle’s controversial goal to stand.

In a statement made available on its official website, the football club said it supports the club coach, Mikel Arteta’s post-match outburst on the ‘unacceptable VAR error.’

“Arsenal Football Club wholeheartedly supports Mikel Arteta’s post-match comments after yet more unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors on Saturday evening,” a statement by the North London club read.

“The Premier League is the best league in the world with the best players, coaches, and supporters, all of whom deserve better. PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating and focus on the action which moves us all on from retrospective analysis, attempted explanations, and apologies,” it added.

Naija News had earlier reported that Arsenal suffered a huge setback in their quest to contend for the Premier League title as they recorded their first defeat of the season against Newcastle United on Saturday.

Before the weekend loss, Arsenal had earlier suffered an unexpected defeat at the hands of West Ham United in the Carabao Cup.

However, in the 64th minute of Arsenal Saturday’s fixture against Newcastle, Anthony Gordon scored the opener for Newcastle that ended up becoming the winning goal of the match.

After the goal, the Video Assistant Referee had to run a check on the build-up to the goal and whether Gordon was offside or not. At the end of the check which lasted for four minutes, the goal stood.