Arsenal not planning to make complaint over Brentford goal – journalist

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Journalist Charles Watts has told his YouTube channel that he understands that Arsenal are not planning to make a formal complaint over Brentford’s goal in Saturday’s draw between the two sides at the Emirates.

The Gunners have every right to be furious after Saturday. Arsenal missed the chance to move eight points clear of Manchester City ahead of their meeting on Wednesday.

And the main reason they were denied the three points was a shocking piece of officiating from VAR Lee Mason.

Arsenal not planning to make complaint over Brentford goal

Ivan Toney had the ball in the Arsenal net to equalise for the visitors during the second-half. There was a long check as Mason looked through some of the potential infringements before the goal was ultimately given.

But what was completely missed was that Christian Norgaard was offside when played in before the midfielder ended up setting Toney. There was no check on whether Norgaard was offside. And had there been, it would not have taken Mason long to realise that he was beyond the last defender.

Understandably, Arsenal fans were absolutely furious about the decision. And Mikel Arteta expressed his dismay after the full-time whistle. But Watts has suggested that Arsenal are not planning to take the decision any further.

“My understanding is Arsenal aren’t going to make a formal complaint over this,” he told his YouTube channel.

“Their thought process is: ‘look, it’s done now. We just want to focus on Manchester City’. And fair enough, that is right. But the Premier League, for them, they should be looking at this and demanding answers because of what happened this weekend.”

As Watts suggests, the Premier League should be livid after a calamitous weekend. Firstly, it was baffling that Tomas Soucek did not concede a penalty in West Ham’s draw with Chelsea.

Meanwhile, Brighton were denied a goal after the offside lines were drawn next to the wrong player. So the Brentford goal is one of several howlers this weekend.

Arsenal’s stance seems sensible. Unfortunately, they are not going to be able to change the result. And dwelling on the mistake is only going to hurt them later down the line.

Mikel Arteta’s challenge now is to convince his side to focus on how sweet it would be if they now won the title when many things seem to be going against them.