Head of officials Mike Riley has revealed that referee Mike Dean has admitted fault on his part for the penalty which cost Arsenal all three points against West Bromwich Albion last week.
The Baggies were wrongly awarded an 88th minute penalty which earned them a 1-1 draw and deny us a much-needed win, and manager Arsene Wenger reacted angrily, and rightly so.
The Gunners boss is now under a three-match ban and having to pay a £40K fine for his comments, but interestingly the manager has supposedly held his hands up for his mistake.
“You award the penalty because what you have seen on the pitch is the arm coming towards the ball,” Riley said.
“What is handball can look to you on the field of play if you get one look at it. But immediately there is evidence from another camera angle which shows actually the opposite happened. That is the safety net of the VAR.
“I think Chambers would have been overturned. The question you ask is, is it an act of deliberate handball? And the reverse angle shows him trying to bring his arm out of the way of the ball, rather than the reverse.
“I know Mike would have overturned it. He messages people, and he’s a very honest guy, and he goes, ‘I got it wrong.’ He knows he did.”
Our manager is being persecuted for his actions, but surely if there was clearly a huge fault in the decision then there should be some leniency.
Does Dean need to make a public apology? Should referees be penalised for making such mistakes?
Pat J
Wenger should apologise for his poor performance for over a decade.
LOL, when asked about his poor performance in the last decade, he answers:
“I didn’t see it”
Seems him and the refs have something in common.
the untouchables
I have been saying for a while unless kreonke and wenger change things arsenal are going to go on a downwards spiral that will be veru difficult to come out of. This window if we do not buy anyone it will be worse. And getting quality players will cost us alot more in transfer fees and wages. The club is failing and these clowns beleive because they are making profit still that it is okay. I guarantee this season there will be no profit. 6th place and maybe 1 or 2 trophys. You can only pave over the cracks fir so long. At the end of the day the fans make the football and less and less fans are joining the club. Its not the 90s anymore or early 2000s. Fans only care about champions league or premiere league.
Kroenke is changing things and Wenger has not had any input in the signings of Sven and Raul to the back room staff or for new player Konstantinos. Read between the lines of his comments about all 3 and whilst trying to be diplomatic is letting it slip he ain’t happy! The appointment of Arteta or whoever to replace him won’t be his decision either when he vacates his position at the end of this season. In the meantime, I continue to support the team, however crap they are at present and am looking forward to this new era that is starting to take shape for next season.
Lol! You think Wenger will leave at the end of the season? Why? He himself said he feels he can go another 4 years so expect him to sign an extension and after that 4 years lets hope his ambitions will end there.
He said he can go on but no necessarily at arsenal. Another club might take him.
I seriously doubt it ?
I dunno my niece’s football club might take the old dinosaur.?
?
1 or 2 trophys!!!
What are you smoking mate?
Wenger’s performance and Mike Dean’s performance are two separate issues. I wish people like you would stop conflating them!
Alexis Sanchez can go as far away from Arsenal as he likes. The guy has given so much to our team and is highly disappointed with proceedings for two years running now. The way things are unravelling at Arsenal is unbearable. Us fans are being disappointed at all fronts. First the Premier league (which is out of touch) and now the FA cup then our manager has the audacity to come out and say that he will go all out to win a shxt League cup. He sure as Hell is in a mental state which is un-repairable given any dose of medication.
I don’t know what giving so much means to you but 60 goals in 122 matches is not so much. Besides, he has less than 6 months to play for us and his service has not be free. I do understand your disappointment about yesterday game but i thought majority of arsenal fans and justarsenal users want major trophy and fa cup is not one.
That’s actually 60 goals and 27 assists in 122 appearances. Also 8 goals + 7 assists in 14 FA Cup appearances.
So in total:
136 appearances
68 goals
34 assists
(I didn’t count CL or League Cup because no one at Arsenal FC seem to care how we perform there!)
Well actually on topic unlike the other comments. I think that the refs have a tough job amd wrong decisions is part of football. However 3 games on the trott. A ban to the manager and a fine. Well this jist doesn’t seem right. Wengers ban should be lifted as way of apology as the man was spot on. Just as managers should be respectfull refs should also have some oressure put on them to be sure that the call is correct. Especialy in penalty situations which can change a game. If I remember rightly chec also got a card when he would have been correct. This should also be over turned.
Well then he should have spoken up on Wengers behalf before Wenger attacked the whole refereeing association. Wenger should know better, what’s the point in poking the bear. But the refs could be honest enough to look at it straight after the game and give some leeway to the guys job you just put in jeopardy possibly. Refs are protected way too much for my liking, these are big calls they are making and I think people would be more understanding if it wasn’t swept under the rug each week. What’s the point in us hearing how he admitted this fault but in hearsay.
This is not surprising. Dean just admitted what everybody knows. But the points have been lost. It is sad how the English FA is being run like a mafia organisation. How can a referee occupy a job in which he can do whatever he wants and make very bad and biased judgement calls and get away with it? Nobody can call him out or challenge him and if you point out the obvious, you get fined and punished? It de-legitimizes the game and results. This is beginning to feel like wrestling where the winner is chosen before the sport even starts. What a sham.
Well, it is up to Arsenal to replace Wenger because clearly referees don’t like him and this is costing arsenal valuable points.
I totally agree with you. Most games seem predictable after watching how refs are making decisions in favour of teams, be it the Gunners or the opposition.
It also beggars belief, how a player earning £50k + a week misses the target, when it’s easier to score. Iwobi is a prime example.
But once a Gunner always a Gunner.
In a way, it make me feel that for the Premier League the under dog team will usually have an extra player to help them. That I guess will make the PL a more competitive and an exciting football league
The above is my own opinion and thats how i feel now, Pls correct me if i am wrong.
Except when Arsenal are the underdogs.
This is getting very personal
win lose draw or anything else its Wenger’s fault
a player can touch the ball 2-3 times during a penalty kick and its still Wenger fault
The club need quality fans
Cause the fans cannot pick who will fill starting 11, its wenger!
won, we praise it
Draw, well its ok
Lose, f*** him
That common sense of the fans from all around the world
If that wrong decision taken by dean was meant for us to be crown champions in as many years, would it mean it was Wengers fault that we haven’t won anything in as many years. I think its time we get real here. Wenger have taken some pathetic decisions over the years i admit but for a ref to admit that the decision was wrong and all of a sudden its about Wenger is REALLY PATHETIC. Mike Dean cost us two points against Westbrom not Wenger.
Give it a rest Hafiz Rahman. Remember it was you who called to buy players worth of 500 millions before you changed your alter ego.
We’ve seen this kind of lack of fight before in players.
You’re having a laugh John!! So you’re obviously happy with the way things are then? ?
Will that give us the two points we lost due to his error and right all the wrong that followed.
Why is this the fans fault?
He has been given year after year to improve Arsenal and here we are fighting Burnley for 6th place.
Like or lump it Arsenal are regressing and it is completely the fault of the manager.
The sooner he goes the better…
I can’t stand the sight of him…
All a little to late and that one bad penalty call doesn’t make up for our many deficiencies. Personally I think the board should apologize for hiring Wenger for another 2 years when they could see we was in decline under his management, I couldn’t care a less what comes out of Wenger’s mouth as it absolute drivvel. If there is no sacking or resignation this morning we can look forward to only more crashing and burning under his tenor.
Who cares!!
I care more about our other problem….trying to get wenger/gazidies and the yank out of our club!!
Followed by the useless, guttles players!
Iwobi seems to be on peoples nerves lately, his shooting is as bad as Ive seen, impotent.
Elneny in that game though, I felt like one of the Arsenal players should have slapped him with a fine and a knuckleduster. Holding was in the deep end, struggling, Elneny done nothing to help him out. And when Holding headed the ball right into the danger man on the edge of our box, Elneny ran towards him and looked like he could at the very least put him off by lunging in before the shot was connected with, but Elneny does a Walcott, and just stops short ..watching the dude pull the trigger. He’s our defensive position, the spine, and he just watches. Honestly, felt like chucking the tv out the window when I seen that bit of play.
Back to Iwobi, it looks confidence issues. People were speaking about him last season the way they now speak about Niles. The faces he makes are very telling, he looks a boy lost every-time he does something wrong. He’s not mentally ready to be carrying fans aspirations at a club of this size. He grimaces and it looks like he wants him mam, I’m half expecting him to cry. How can they not see that he’s not ready, he has skills but he has too much on his shoulders. Some players egos inflate whether justly or unjustly, it’s not happening for Iwobi. Id say he is also too easily influenced by the bad stuff he reads online. He should cherry pick his input, Nigerian fans, AFC facebook, colleagues, family, ignore JA commentators along with 99% twitter and it might be a decent start. Extra training on just shooting, day off pick up a ball. Ask the right people for advice and take notes, Iwobi you need to start doing what it takes to improve because if you keep doing what you’re doing now then you’ll be taking a move to a smaller club soon enough.
Very well put b-o-t
@Break,
Iwobi could become a lot better player under new manager. Of course he will praise Wenger, since it was Wenger who gave him his chance in the first XI.
He can’t get better with Wenger, and he can’t get any worse how he has been this season, so new manager is the answer.
Iwobi wouldn’t get in to any of the other top 6 teams! I wonder if he’d even make the Stevenage line up
All those slating Iwobi need to step back an look at the whole Arsenal setup presently.
He is an attacking midfielder in the mold of OZIL but more mobile and less precise (age)
He is being asked to do too much. The present team is unable to hold possession long enough to build decent attacks cos the players off the ball positioning is all wrong. When someone like Iwobi , the ball, two other players should be creating options around him not hiding behind opposition players and expecting a magical pass to land at their feet. Hence, he either has to pass back or attempt to dribble his way out of the opposition press which mostly ends up with him losing possession.
Look at Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester city players and see how they give each other options with intelligent movement especially in the opposition half.
Wenger might have his faults in some decisions, but let’s look at some games in which the referee’s decision had really ruined the game and the result
1. Stoke City vs Arsenal
2. Watford vs Arsenal
3. Man City vs Arsenal – Worst of the lot
4. Arsenal vs Man Utd
5. West Brom vs Arsenal
6. Aresnal vs Chelsea
7. Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal – Really abyssmal
These are the games in which the refereeing was dreadful and it cost us valuable points and goals, some other games are not here either because the team rallied to grind out the result (Leicester) or they were just plain shambolic in their performance (Liverpool). Arsenal have played about 25 games in the domestic competitions and the referees had ruined 7. That’s about 28% of the total number of games played, quite simply, almost 1/3 of the games so far. The weird and frightening thing about this is we are just passed half of the season. Who’s to know what more to come from referees. #VAR_in_england
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the FA to apologize to Monsieur Wenger! come to think of it, I am feeling there is a conspiracy theory against Wenger and the Arsenal board. four penalties back to back against Arsenal in three consecutive games, is not a coincidence…
One of the four pens was wrong decision and the ref should apologise for but Wenger should also apologise for the manner of his outburst which perhaps he has in private as perhaps the ref in question has?
The pens were because we are rubbish at tackling and closing down.
I maybe be reading this wrong, but whenever Arsenal are successful, especially in Arsene’s first ten years, they repeatedly had players sent off: like Patrick Viera, who often got double booked, even for minor offences.
Now while Arsenal are less successful the sending offs have subsided. I always believed many of the bookings were harsh, and what is it when other teams play the commentator refers to a player not being booked for the second time or they would have to leave the pitch. If they have done two bookable the referee should do his job according to the rules and not sentimentally.
Anyway, I also think Mr. wenger’s time is up, I thought that a long time ago.
Really, really bored about the referee talk. Yes we had some bad decisions but so do others. Get over it and move on.
@Ivan, if you are tired of people talking about the refs, you are not alone. But we must or else all the rubbish will continue.
I think I am more p*ssed off by the inconsistency and incompetence of the refs. If we have to talk about it, then so be it. That is the least we can do to rescue the beloved game from these hijackers.
Imagine, they don’t even have the decency to apologise to the club and the fans; and some pathetic souls can only blame Wenger!
Will we get our two points illegaly taken away from us? Not likely. The arrogant losers. Wenger will go at some point, but so must these refs, especially if it is business as usual.