Talk Sport presenter Natalie Sawyer has hit back at Mikel Arteta as the Arsenal gaffer insisted an apology is not enough for the VAR mistake that cost his side two points against Brentford.
The Gunners could have won the game if VAR had drawn the offside line in Ivan Toney’s equalising goal for the Bees.
However, that never happened and Arsenal drew the game 1-1, but the Gunners received an apology.
Arteta rejected it and said only giving back the points would do for him, as the Arsenal gaffer insists it was a significant setback for his side.
However, Sawyer has hit back at him and said via Mirror Football:
“This has been getting on my goat for a while – the fact Mikel Arteta has kept going on about ‘give us our two points back’, that has riled me a lot.
“I think it’s deluded and very disrespectful from Arteta to assume, with 20 or so minutes to go, that you were going to win that game against Brentford. I know I’m going to say that, it’s my team, but that has really riled me.
“I think it’s totally wrong and disrespectful to a Brentford team that had more chances in the game, they had a greater expected goals [xG] rate. Why would you just assume that you would have won that game? I don’t understand it.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
As close as this title race is, every single point is essential and that draw to Brentford was a considerable blow.
VAR decisions have proved costly for us this season and officials must begin to get it right before it causes even more problems for us.
It is ridiculous to think human error could still be a problem after the technology was introduced.
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It’s a mind game by the gaffer, he could very well be instilling a siege mentality in the team.
Not only will it puts pressure on the officials to get their acts together, it could galvanize the young guns further to push even harder.
No one has an issue with conceding, losing or settling for a point, when it’s fair play and legitimate. Nice attempt at a response, but you missed the mark.
Getting on your goat? You should get on your goat and ride off into the distance, dummy
Lol that’s exactly the phrase that made me raise an eyebrow 🙂
Sounds as if her goat is depressed over Arteta’s comments.
Must be a talking goat, otherwise… how did she know what was depressing it?
Natalie Sawyer has the right to say what he said but does he know whether in the 20 minutes left in the Brentford game , if their goal had been disallowed, Arsenal could have scored another goal . Its a 50-50 chance. Arteta has the right to complain about the 2 points lost. Let Sawyer go and rewatch our match with Aston Villa and see what happened in 6 minutes of injury time . Up GUNNERS.
“I think it’s deluded and very disrespectful from Arteta to assume, with 20 or so minutes to go, that you were going to win that game against Brentford.” As if they managed to score any more in the remaining minutes. For God sake, your team didn’t manage to score a single legal goal and conceded 4 in 180 minutes of football this season. This lady has seriously lost her goat
With all due to Natalie Sawyer and her anger towards Mikel Arteta over his comments on Lee Mason’s *Deliberate” mistake, the comments were during an interview after the match, with the game having ended the way it did so while her reasoning that had the goal been rightfully disallowed, Brentford would have gone ahead to still get an equalizer may make sense, it was a bit out of place because it was an unrealistic assumption, especially when they failed to convert simple chances, the gaffer’s comments had nothing to do with Brentford, he was only stating what any other manager would wish for his team, especially knowing that the man stole 5 points from Arsenal Football Club in one season, first was at Manchester united and then this.
I agree with her on this one except I don’t think it was delusional from arteta, I think he was trying to make his side feel outraged, to help shake them out of what was becoming a bad little run of form. It may have been effective.
As I will continue to say, Brentford were also unlucky to have a goal disallowed earlier in the game when a foul was called for saliba, when he appeared to slip. For us to go on and on about our misfortune is not exactly fair minded. It is self-centred, victim mentality-type thinking.
This precisely what still riles us all. Here comes someone who is doing a job she got because she is a woman and we are told what we always suspected.
That fact is they didn’t score anymore, so I don’t see that there was any assumption. This lady is weird. The facts stare you in the face and you speak of assumptions.
If games are being decided by human error I think it’s fair to give a rematch under different officials, that would work for me. Those were two huge points, that was our five-point gap which we earned over city ..being reduced to three points and them regaining the top spot for a spell, it was a huge error v Brentford, rematch I would take, then it’s fair whatever the outcome
Unfortunately, this is not a honest comment. Very common amongst sports journalists. How often has Arteta referenced this incident without being asked? The problem is that journalists keep asking the same direct questions about an incident and managers give the same answer. The journalists then turn around and accuse managers of focusing on certain issues or minutiae.
Don’t forget that the Bees gave you the points advantage by taking the three from City.
And don’t forget also that you were completely outplayed for the 70 minutes or so before our equaliser.