Things could have been oh so different
A former Premier League referee has said that Bournemouth’s opening goal in their 3-2 defeat against Arsenal shouldn’t have counted.
Arsenal came from two goals down to win in dramatic fashion, with Reiss Nelson scoring a 97th minute winner to preserve their lead at the top of the table.
Philip Billing gave the hosts an early scare after nine seconds, but Poll revealed that VAR failed to spot a key incident in the build up to the goal.
Several of the Bournemouth players were actually in the Arsenal half of the pitch when kick-off was taken. Had this been spotted, then kick off would’ve had to be retaken.
Nice to know I wasn’t the only one 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/PJpMFV7WEM
— Toby (@_Toby88_) March 6, 2023
Speaking to BettingSites.co.uk, he said: “VAR once again appeared to let Arsenal FC down again on Saturday as both the on field referee, Chris Kavanagh, and his colleagues at Stockley Park failed to punish the fact that a number of Bournemouth players were in the opposing half before the kick off at the start of the match.
“Kavanagh should have seen the encroachment and ordered the kick off to be retaken long before Bournemouth got into the Arsenal penalty area.
“This happens in a vast number of games but a goal does not follow within 10 seconds and so the offence goes unnoticed and unpunished.
“Had the player who encroached the most, Antoine Semenyo (Bournemouth number 24), been the player who scored there could well have been an intervention by VAR but with Howard Webb now in charge we will only see less technical offences that are missed being corrected.”
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