Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta expressed his displeasure over the disallowed goal after the Gunners succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Leicester City on Sunday.
The North London club would have liked to get their Premier League season back on track after going down to Manchester City last week. But that wasn’t to be the case, as the visitors waited for their chance to hit on the counter and did just that with Jamie Vardy coming off the bench to score the game winner in the 80′.
Things might have gone differently had Alexandre Lacazette’s glancing header in the opening few minutes not been ruled out. This was mentioned by Mikel Arteta who went to add that having the goal disallowed was a harsh decision and eventually, the Gunners didn’t do enough to get the win.
According to Arsenal’s official website, he said:
“Yes [it’s harsh] because Granit is behind Schmeichel, he is not in front of him so he is nothing to do with that ball, it is away from him and Granit is behind. But it’s okay, they made that decision and we cannot change it.
“But again we can have our view, but we have the specialists who are the referees to make that decision and they made a call that to wasn’t allowed and obviously it had a massive impact on the game because you have two teams where the margins are minimal and you can see in the Premier League at the moment that this is a big margin. I think we should still have not lost the game.”
If the goal had stood, the result would have been different for Arteta’s side. As for the visitors, it would have drawn them out of their shells and made them more vulnerable to the counterattack.
But Leicester have to be lauded for getting their tactics right and Brendan Rodgers will be feeling very happy about the result. The Emirates club will now have to put this behind them and focus on Thursday’s Europa League game.
Dundalk visit the Emirates as the Gunners look to strengthen their hold on their group. They will have to be a little more creative than they were on Sunday in order to pull off a win.
This was one area where the North Londoners really struggled.
Despite losing three games in the Premier League, Arsenal have made a good start to the season. They are just three points off the Champions League spots which is a good place to be in.
To break down teams that sit back and defend deep, it will require some extra effort from the Gunners. While they do have the players to do that, sometimes as with Sunday, it just does not happen.