Alan Shearer has accused the referee and the VAR of being too scared to make the right decision for Arsenal’s second goal in their 4-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur.
The controversy was about the Gunners’ second goal and Eberechi Eze’s first on 41 minutes.
Replays showed that Bukayo Saka, Martin Zubimendi and Leandro Trossard were all in offside positions when Eze took his shot.
Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has said that at least two Arsenal players were in Guglielmo Vicario’s line of sight.
However, Michael Oliver and his assistants did not blow for offside, while the VAR, Stuart Attwell, failed to intervene.
Officials were too scared to rule out Arsenal’s second goal
Shearer is in no doubt that the goal should have been ruled out, pointing out that Arsenal players were clearly in the Tottenham goalkeeper’s line of sight.
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He suggested that due to the controversy surrounding similar goals which have been chalked off in the Premier League recently, the officials were too scared to call the offside in Tottenham’s favour.
The Newcastle legend said on The Rest Is Football podcast: “I don’t know what you think, Micah. I just honestly think that the referees and the VAR have got themselves in such a pickle with this situation. I thought they were petrified to give the correct decision.
“He should have been offside. There’s no way those guys in front of him weren’t directly in the line of sight of the goalkeeper. Therefore, it was clearly offside.
“Yet because of what’s gone on, with the Forest goal, with what happened with Liverpool at Man City, they were petrified of making the decision, and they just panicked and they got the wrong decision.
“It was a good job it didn’t make that much of a difference, but, if it had, then you could imagine the backfire that would have happened. It was offside, but it was still a great strike.”
Micah Richards laments the lack of consistency in officiating
Micah Richards agreed with Shearer’s assessment and suggested that Tottenham have a right to feel aggrieved.
He questioned why Liverpool’s goal against Man City two weeks ago was ruled out while Eze’s goal against Tottenham stood.
Richards said about the incident: “We keep saying; ‘Consistency’ and all those things, but it either is (offside) or it isn’t. If someone’s in front of the goalkeeper – the one against Man City with [Virgil] van Dijk, that should have stood, shouldn’t it?
“It would be easy for them to just say, ‘That’s offside’, because then you don’t get ‘Should it’, ‘Was it’, ‘I’m not sure about it’, They’re just making it more difficult for themselves.”
Shearer replied: “I honestly think they have panicked. I think they’ve panicked and thought if we give that offside, the criticism we’re going to get again, but, really, that would have been the right decision. They’ve just made such a mess of the last couple of weeks with those decisions.”