Arsenal Fans Demand Brentford Game Is Replayed After VAR Forgot To Draw Offside Lines

Brentford’s controversial equalizer against Arsenal was only allowed to stand after it was revealed that VAR official Lee Mason forgot to draw the lines that would have shown Christian Norgaard was offside in the build-up to Ivan Toney’s goal.

Arsenal dropped points for the second consecutive games, following up the 1-0 defeat to Everton with a 1-1 draw at the Emirates.

Leandro Trossard opened his account for the Gunners after coming off the bench but Ivan Toney bagged a late equaliser for the Bees.

It was a messy goal in the end, with Toney heading home after a set-piece situation where Brentford were able to keep the ball alive.

However, there were two different potential offside incidents checked by VAR in the build-up to the goal.

The first involved Ethan Pinnick, who purposely stood in an offside position. He did not touch the ball but Arsenal felt he block Gabriel Magalhaes and allow Toney to get a shot in.

Then, they argued that Christian Norgaard had just strayed off when he squared for Toney. Lee Mason, previously relieved of his duties for two errors earlier in the campaign, was on VAR duty.

But despite the checks taking place, the goal stood and Arsenal’s lead at the top of the table could be cut to three points if Manchester City beat Aston Villa on Sunday which left Mikel Arteta raging.

Gunners supporters are utterly livid with the goal and took to social media to vent. Below are some of the reactions from Arsenal fans:

One wrote: “Arsenal needs to appeal and request a replay. When the title is so close, Brentford players were offside twice!”

A second said: “Blatant offside for Brentford’s goal but yeah no surprise every decision goes against Arsenal.”

A third added: “Dermot Gallagher says the Brentford goal was offside, the commentator said likewise. Arsenal robbed again.”

A fourth commented: “Arsenal need to require an investigation on who was controlling the VAR decisions in this game. There were TWO clear and obvious offsides in the Brentford goal and they decided to ignore them BOTH.”

A fifth fumed: “No pen at Newcastle, no pen at Everton, offside goal for Brentford. Call me crazy but the refs are actually against us”.

Mikel Arteta was absolutely furious after the game and revealed the club will be writing to the Premier League, having taken issue with the two calls.

“I’ve looked back at the goal and it was offside,” he said post-match.

“They haven’t explained why it wasn’t ruled out and we’ll be giving our views to the Premier League.

“You have to apply certain principles in defending set-pieces and you do that by sticking to the rules.

“But apparently they were not applied and if you suddenly change those rules you tell us before the game so you don’t defend with the line so high.

“We apply what the referee tells us every single week before the game – that if the blockers are offside then it will be ruled out.

“I also think their player was offside when he crossed the ball. I was hoping that the cameras and visuals would pick that up because it looks like there were two actions.”

Arsenal have arguably the biggest game of the season on Wednesday when they welcome defending champions City to the Emirates.