Clattenburg: Arsenal wrong to complain of penalty decision

Arsenal lost to Watford this weekend in somewhat controversial circumstances, but top professional referee Mark Clattenburg insists one of those situations was officiated correctly.

The Gunners led the weekend’s Premier League clash with Watford at the half-time interval, but ended up on the losing end thanks to a penalty and a possible offside goal.

There has been talk of Arsenal being hard-done by, and even Graham Poll claimed that the penalty decision was wrong, but Mark Clattenburg has studied the footage and insists there was in fact contact which resulted in bringing Richarlison to the ground.

“It was the correct decision to award the penalty as there was contact between him and Hector Bellerin, that wasn’t initiated by the forward,” Clattenburg said.

“It is interesting because I’ve looked at three angles of the incident; the first one looks like nothing, there appears to be no contact,” he continued.

“The second also looks like no contact, but a third angle that I’ve studied shows Bellerin’s left leg hit the right leg of Richarlison.

“There is contact. We as referees cannot work out if that’s sufficient contact to award a penalty.

“But what we try to understand is that if a player is at full pace and there is contact, then experience tells us that it will knock the attacker over.

“It’s like when a 110m hurdler slightly glances a hurdle at full pace: it knocks them down. It is very similar with football.

“If Bellerin touches the ball first then it’s play on, but because Richarlison touches the ball first and there is contact from the Arsenal full back that is consistent with the striker going to ground, then the referee Neil Swarbrick is right to give the penalty.”

Does it make it any better that the decision was right? Is it better feeling like the decisions went against us and we deserved at least a point?

Pat J

Tags Arsenal Clattengburg Watford

22 Comments

  1. Clattenburg is wrong, but Arsenal should have controlled the game before Watford can pressurize them. Because Arsenal has been managed by a very long serving and very experienced manager, as compared to Watford’s manager.

    Like what Deeney said, Arsenal have no “cojones” to admit the defeat. And like what Shearer said, keeping Wenger has sent a very clear message to the players and the fans on how corrupted and stagnant the club has become.

    1. Even with photo analysis Clattenburg cannot get it right. The fall was NOT consistent with the contact. The ball is just going over the byeline and he sprawls forward on his face – having dug both feet in behind him. Contrast with Welbeck chasing the ball into the oppos. penalty area. With the ball nowhere near within playing distance he gets taken out by the defender. But the ref did not fancy giving that one. I agree we still should have dug out a result. But Wenger has not gathered that sort of player.

      1. 100% right Chris, but are you surprised by a referee going against us, it’s been happening for years. I know I’ve said this before but I’m trying to get through to as many people as possible, Incredibly if you include West Yorkshire, 90% of the referees come from the north west of England and not one from the south instigated by PGMOL who appoint all referees and led by the most corrupt official ever to referee the English game, Mike Riley, who, in one season, when we were chasing Manchester United for title, gave Ruud van Nistelroy eleven penalties in eleven games. This is not sour grapes,in my opinion this is corruption at highest level with Sky Sports also involved.

  2. Deserved a point? WTF are we now? Can we even win the EUROPA? Will we ever, ever ever win the Champions league? Im going craze, like really gooners

  3. In PL Our Away matches have been horrendous. (except 0-0 to Chelsea where we played very well) 4-0 Liverpool win, 1-0 Stoke win, 2-1 Watford win. Next Everton away :-(. We are 0-3-1 in away matches. Still haven’t won yet.

    Wenger is the only delusional one (lol that should be his nickname “The Delusional One”) who thinks we can win the Premier league. Top 4 is unlikely. We would need to better two of these teams: United, City, Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea

    We need to gamble and play our best players in Europa league. Well, depending on the team we play we can give players rest but my point is that we need to take Europa very seriously

    If we can win Europa which is possible. We will win an international trophy we have never won and get into Champions League no matter where we finish domestically

  4. Is this a joke, leave that referee alone, we lost the game anyhow, not like a draw and they would have scored no matter what, they were at it to win! We can’t beat a mediocre team because we are not better than that overall…They want to win, not us…The tourist club is Arsenal, like some type of resort where they get pampered, massage, jacouzzi, go to the gym, exercise in training, great body and money…Then they have all time to party and snatch all the girls…It’s a rip off as price of their ticket…Wake up and get real, leave that poor referee, maybe go wait for him and bumrush him or throw his ass in jail; it is Monopoly at arsenal after all.. Must be a joke; should be ashamed to even mention this game again…I need a good drink after what i read and shut my computer…Someone said we should not complain as Chelsea flopped 2 years ago…So, yeah, we should as well and accuse referrees…I’m out guys…The season is over, what we fighting for, 6 to 12 place…Liverpool can’t finish behind us, we have no consistency nor game, just pass the ball like academy 6 year old do, passing the ball…Instead to put the damn ball behind the net, contrrol the ball and never score means no control of the game nor the ball, it should be behind frekin net…

    1. Yeah! Leave those referees alone! Let them continue to make shit calls and refuse to implement video technology that would eliminate 90% of wrong decisions currently made in almost every match. Let’s keep encouraging this culture of diving and play acting because they can get away with it.

  5. F*&% Troy Deeney and F*&% Clattenberg pseudo bald F&*%. Ok, Arsenal should’ve won, worst case scenario, held out for a draw but we didn’t, can’t do much about that. But don’t wanna hear people outside of Arsenal talking shit about us………..we can do that ourselves as FANS!

  6. I WANT VIDEOS. I am so tired of shit refereeing and I’m so tired of referees defending each other over shit calls.

    If that is a penalty, then there should be 10 penalties per match because they needed a 3rd video just to see the tiny contact. Bellerin didn’t tackle or kick out, he touched him running side by side.

    And using hurdlers as an example is ludicrous because are jumping over something multiple feet in the air that takes out their legs, AND they don’t even fall every time.

    Richalison was a cheat the entire match on top of that. Kept looking at players right before 50/50s and then going for the man instead of the ball. And falling over nonstop.

    1. Newsflash – we scored one and lost. Even if the penalty never was that doesn’t add up to 3 cojone points.

  7. Wenger can’t even make one good sub to win he couldn’t even see that xhaka elshit neny were useless the couldn’t protect the defenders nor send right passes what you get for 5ml ?

  8. So why wasn’t the foul against Wellbz, a penalty? It was the sam, although a lot stronger. At least if the refs are wrong they can be consistently wrong. All I can say is, thank God, Clattenburg isn’t refereeing any more. Having said that, we can’t just drop our heads when the decisions go against us, or incomprehensible subs are made

  9. 100% right Chris, but are surprised by referees going against us, it’s been happening for years, I know I’ve said this before but I’m trying to get through to as many people as possible. Incredibly if you include West Yorkshire, 90% of the referees come from the north west of England, with not one from the south, instigated by the PGMOL who appoint all referees and led by Mike Riley , a former referee who once gave Ruud van Nistelroy eleven penalties in eleven games when we were chasing Manchester United for the title. This is not sour grapes but facts

  10. So why wasn’t the foul against Wellbz, a penalty? It was the sam, although a lot stronger. At least if the refs are wrong they can be consistently wrong. All I can say is, thank God, Clattenburg isn’t refereeing any more. Having said that, we can’t just drop our heads when the decisions go against us, or incomprehensible subs are made

  11. There was contact, maybe only light, but enough to disrupt the attacking player’s balance. Bellerin didn’t get the ball, and it was in the box. That’s definitely a penalty. If that was the exact same incident, but a Watford defender made contact with an Arsenal player in their box, Wenger would be saying it’s a clear penalty, and so would most of the fans.

    But the main problem is that we only scored one goal, and then relaxed, as if the result was in the bag.

    Man City conceded 2 goals against Stoke, but they aren’t complaining because they scored 7 goals in that game! Not only did Arsenal fail to score again, but we didn’t “Shut-up-shop” and defend solidly either. You have to do at least one or the other.

    Why are Arsenal so damn complacent despite stuff like this happening over and over again season-after-season?

    Because of the manager!

  12. I just don’t care anymore it’s like Groundhog Day over and over again. The fans moan, the players pick up their fat salaries, the manager still believes he can win the PL and the board are probably looking to extend Wenger’s contract even further. It’s like Alice In Wonderland except it’s not funny.

    Someone close to Wenger should tell him ‘for God’s sake man go’ before the club becomes the laughing stock of the PL (if they haven’t already). To even consider getting into the CL via the Europa League is, quite frankly, demeaning to our once great club.

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