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Sam Hill

Roy Keane and Ian Wright agree on Arsenal vs Man Utd VAR verdict after disallowed goal

Arsenal legend Ian Wright believes VAR made the correct call by intervening and disallowing Gabriel Martinelli's opening goal against Manchester United.

The Gunners suffered defeat for the first time this season following their 3-1 loss at Old Trafford on Sunday, with VAR playing a key role in the match. Mikel Arteta questioned the consistency of VAR during his post-match press conference, with many deeming the decision to rule out Martinelli's goal as 'soft'.

Bukayo Saka was able to find a well-deserved equaliser in the second half, but two quickfire goals from Marcus Rashford on the counter-attack shellshocked the Gunners as they went on to taste defeat. Club captain Martin Odegaard blasted the decision to rule out Martinelli's goal after the game claiming he 'hardly touched' Eriksen, but wright feels like the correct decision was made.

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Speaking on Match of the Day 2, the Arsenal icon said: "People talk about 'back in their day it's not a foul', but in this day, that’s a foul. When I saw that, they are going to give that even though they had a complete nightmare [on Saturday], VAR, I couldn’t see them not giving that."

The decision was widely discussed by pundits after the game with Roy Keane claiming it was 'soft', but still a foul. During Sky Sports' coverage of the clash at Old Trafford, Keane said: "Yeah, it’s soft, of course. What helps United is that Odegaard doesn’t touch the ball.

"Obviously we played in a different era. It’s not a foul in our day, but the way the game’s going… They’re staying down when they get touched. I don’t like to see it. I suppose it is a foul."

After the defeat, Mikel Arteta discussed the decision during his post-match press conference and wants to see more consistency from officials and VAR. Arteta said: "It’s a lack of consistency.

"Last week (Aston Villa) made a foul on Aaron Ramsdale but 'it is soft, it is not a foul'. There was a foul on Bukayo Saka last week, 'it is soft, not a penalty'.

"Today it is a foul. There were some strong tackles and you could see there was no yellow card because they want to keep a threshold in a big game. It’s hard to understand."

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