Arsene Wenger was very clear in his comments after the West Brom v Arsenal game on New Years Eve that Mike Dean had made a grave error in awarding the Baggies a penalty in the dying minutes of the 1-1 draw, but after telling us all that he was going to contest the charge it now appears that he has admitted that he was guilty as charged. He will now have to serve a three-game ban and has a sizeable fine as well.
A statement from the FA read: “Arsene Wenger will serve a touchline ban for Arsenal’s next three matches after he was charged with misconduct.
“It follows an Independent Regulatory Commission hearing today at which the Arsenal manager admitted that his language and behaviour in the match officials’ changing room after the West Brom game on Sunday was abusive, improper and questioned the integrity of the match referee. He was also fined £40,000.”
I am a little disconcerted that Wenger didn’t request a personal hearing so he could give his side of the story, as he actually had an extremely valid defence that Dean made it look like he had a vendetta against the Arsenal boss.
But he has accepted that he was wrong, but now he has to face yet another charge relating to the penalty given against us by Anthony Taylor in the Chelsea game. This (in my opinion) will not be so easy to defend, so can we expect Wenger to get another touchline ban on top of this one?
If he carries on abusing referees like this, we may not see him in the dugout for the rest of the season!
Darren N