The incompetents of the PGMOL refereeing cohort tried their damnedest but it wasn’t enough to deny Arsenal all three points at Leicester on Saturday.
Despite being dominant for huge swathes of the match, the Gunners were denied a more comfortable victory courtesy of the usual mix of VAR intervention and baffling officiating, although, in fairness, their own lack of killer pass played a part at times.
The hosts offered next to nothing for almost the entire match but were kept in the mix by a run of maddening decisions that, on another day, may have proved costly. In the event, though, Mikel Arteta’s men held firm to claim the win and reinstate their five-point gap at the top of the Premier League.
All said and done, that was the most important thing.
From a performance point of view, the Gunners were superb in the opening 45 minutes. There was a rhythm of passing and movement that the hosts couldn’t cope with and it looked simply a matter of when rather than if we would take the lead.
After an exhausting and unbroken run of games leading the Arsenal line, Eddie Nketiah dropped to the bench for a rest while Leandro Trossard came into the mix as a ‘false nine’. The Belgian’s movement was a thorn in the Leicester side in the opening half and he picked up some brilliant combinations on both right and left wing.
For all our dominance, however, we struggled to find a final ball that might have turned attacking threat into a clear-cut opportunity. It was the only point of frustration in a pretty excellent first 45.
When at last we did force a way through, with Trossard picking up the loose ball to fire home from the edge of the box, the goal was scrubbed out via a VAR intervention. And, look, Ben White clearly had hold of the home goalkeeper when the ball entered the box but you don’t have to cast your mind back far to remember Aaron Ramsdale quite literally being pinned in place by Douglas Luiz of Aston Villa, who had both arms wrapped around the Gunners’ stopper as the ball went straight in from a corner.
And, as if that wasn’t enough, the very same VAR team had nothing at all to say when, scarcely five minutes later, Bukayo Saka was manhandled to the floor by Jason Souter in the Leicester box. Both arms were on Saka, no attempt was made to play the ball, and he was pulled down. If you give the first foul you simply have to call the second one, there is no justification for not doing so.
And yet, to nobody’s surprise, the referee and the VAR team found exactly the justification they needed to deny Arsenal a penalty for a foul they called just minutes before. Yet again, we are left scratching our heads at the rank inconsistency.
Barely a minute after the resumption of play, however, those grievances were set aside as Gabriel Martinelli combined with the roving Trossard to slide home the opener. It was a lovely goal and the bare minimum the Gunners deserved for their first-half dominance.
They might have moved further clear some 10 minutes later but a neat finish from Saka was ruled out for offside in the build-up against Martinelli and, as we know, goals for Arsenal are giving a forensic level of inspection.
Brendan Rogers responded midway through the half by sending on Jamie Vardy and Yuri Tielemans and, to the Foxes’ credit, they improved thereafter. They pushed higher up the pitch, started to deny Arsenal time on the ball and worked harder out of possession to force mistakes. And while this didn’t really result in a glut of chances for the hosts, it did shift the momentum of the match such that Arsenal began to curb their enthusiasm in attack.
In truth, the last quarter of the match was a broken, scrappy affair as Leicester struggled to turn their possession into penetration while Arsenal showed little interest in committing numbers to the attack. It wasn’t the greatest end to the match but, in the grand scheme of things, it won’t matter as the Gunners saw out the win.
And, after a frightful run of form at the start of February, it has been hugely satisfying to see the team pick up six points from six on the road in the last two games. Setting aside all the misfortune and ill-feeling of the last month, Arteta and the squad can be pleased with the work they have done to get their season back on track.
There is still a hell of a long way to go, of course, but it feels good to have some momentum again. Onwards to Everton!
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