Mikel Arteta has accused referee Lee Mason of “not understanding” his job as a VAR official and said Arsenal have “huge anger” over the mistake which influenced Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Brentford.
Ivan Toney‘s 74th-minute header earned Brentford a point at the Emirates Stadium despite Christian Norgaard assisting the goal from an offside position — an error referees’ body Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) subsequently labelled as “human error.”
– Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.)
PGMOL apologised to Arsenal while Mason was dropped from his VAR duties for this weekend’s Premier League games but Arteta nevertheless lamented the decision which enabled Manchester City to cut their lead at the summit to just three points ahead of Wednesday’s meeting between the top two sides.
“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,” Arteta told a news conference on Tuesday.
“That costs Arsenal two points that’s not going to be restored. We’re going to have to find those two points somewhere in the league.
“At the same time we appreciate the apology and the explanations and we got a lot of sympathy from colleagues in the industry and in football who say that we cannot play the game with the integrity like we do. That’s it. We have to move on.
