Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was left furious with the decision to allow Newcastle's winning goal against his side earlier this month and now has clear answers as to why the strike was cleared
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Assessing Mikel Arteta's VAR rant - did he have a point? | Football Digest
Officials dismissed Gabriel's attempts to get Anthony Gordon 's winning goal for Newcastle chalked off out of hand, new audio has revealed.
The former Everton star netted the strike against Arsenal at St James' Park earlier this month in controversial circumstances. There was a near five-minute wait between the ball hitting the back of the net and the goal being awarded.
The goal was given on-field, only for VAR to intervene. Arsenal thought they had good reason for it to be chalked off, believing that the ball had gone out of play, while they also called for offside.
During assessment of the incident, the VAR said: "I don't see a specific foul on Gabriel. I see two hands on his back but I don't see anything of a push that warrants him flying forward like that."
That audio is unlikely to be a consolation for Mikel Arteta, who launched into a passionate rant post-match concerning the decision. PGMOL chief Howard Webb also explained exactly why the goal was allowed to stand as part of the programme.
Arsenal were furious that Anthony Gordon's goal was allowed to stand ( Image:
He said: "This was a big moment - an unusual situation with three aspects for the VAR to check whether or not the on-field decision of goal should be overturned. We see the ball getting very close to the goalline - don't forget we have an Assistant Referee who is right in line - the ball hasn't got a lot of pace as it goes to the goalline, so he's looking right down the line better than any of our cameras.
"And we know the ball is curved, so it can be over-hanging the line and we need evidence it's out, and we don't have that here. The ball then comes over and Joelinton challenges Gabriel, and it could be a foul, might be a foul. The VAR decides that the evidence from the footage isn't clear enough to intervene with a recommendation for a review for a clear error.
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"I think the talks we've seen after, the opinion that is split across a lot of analysis, would suggest that was a correct non-intervention because of the subjectivity. And then one of those unusual situations where the ball goes between two players, and trying to identify exactly when the ball leaves Joelinton, is really difficult to establish because of the players being so close together.
"So again, no conclusive evidence that Gordon was offside when the ball was last touched. The VAR went through that diligently and identified no clear evidence to intervene to overturn the goal. The process was actually correct."
However, despite doubling down that the decision to award the goal was correct. The head of referees did accept that both Kai Havertz and Bruno Guimaraes should have seen red for fouls during the controversial affair.