North London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham both suffered their first defeat in the Premier League this weekend, and seemingly for a similar reason. Arsenal were the better footballing side in their 1-0 loss at Newcastle but allowed the game to descend into a battle and went down in the second half to Anthony Gordon’s controversial winner.
On Monday night, Spurs were beaten by Chelsea with much the same dynamic at play; Spurs were the dominant side for the opening 25 minutes and led 1-0, but they were too fired up, lost control of their emotions and, with them, control of the contest. They finished with nine men and a 4-1 defeat.
Of course, there has been relatively scant focus on the return of Arsenal’s soft centre nor the first cracks of Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham revolution because the fallout from both games has, tediously, been dominated by more discourse about refereeing decisions and specifically the role of the VARs.
Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal head coach, described the decision to award Gordon’s goal — which was checked by the VAR on three different grounds, which all came back in Newcastle’s favour — as “embarrassing” and a “disgrace”, and added that he felt “sick”.
The default position of most managers is to rage against VAR only when decisions go against them
Postecoglou had less reason to complain about the VAR calls against his side but was more dignified in his assessment of the technology.
Firstly, Arteta’s comments, which came across as petulant, entitled and generally unhelpful, the Spaniard offering little in the way of an actual explanation as to what he would like to change.
He nonetheless doubled down on Tuesday, saying it was his “duty… to defend my players and my club in the best possible way”.
The obvious retort for Arteta is whether lashing out publicly at the standard of officiating really is the “best possible way” to enact change in what is quite obviously a mounting crisis of confidence in refereeing from clubs across the Premier League.
In Arteta’s defence, managers often offer up emotional responses in the immediate aftermath of painful results.
Arteta is also far from alone in venting at the standard of officiating. Over the weekend, Wolves boss Gary O’Neil said he has “given up on referees” and claimed “we’re in a crazy place” after his side conceded from a stoppage-time penalty to lose at Sheffield United.
And when Arteta says he is defending the interests of his club, he is probably right. There seems a slightly higher chance that the next ultra-tight VAR call will go Arsenal’s way. It is not corruption, simply human nature. But if Premier League clubs really want things to change, they need to start defending the integrity of the whole league rather than their own narrow interests.
The default position of almost every top-flight manager is to rage against VAR only when decisions go against their team — although here Postecoglou appears something of an outlier and spoke well on Monday about the damage the technology is doing to the game as a whole.
Presuming enough of the Premier League clubs feel strongly about the need for change, which they certainly appear to, they need to come together and suggest constructive changes, rather than lashing out at officials.
The 20 clubs, after all, run the Premier League so their managers’ default position of “this is a disgrace but we have to get on with it” often appears strange.
Depressingly, the prospect of clubs coming together for the greater good seems remote, however.
The moment to do that was surely after the VAR failed to award Luis Diaz’s opening goal in Liverpool’s 2-1 defeat at Spurs in September — probably the worst VAR cock-up in the Premier League to date.
Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp raged, with the club putting out a furious statement claiming “sporting integrity has been undermined” and hinting at vague threats of action towards the PGMOL, the referees’ body.
There was little in the way of solidarity from their top-flight rivals, and Liverpool quickly surrendered the moral high ground when Klopp called for a replay. In much the same way, Arsenal released a bizarre club statement in support of Arteta’s furious rant, criticising “yet more unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors” and calling for “urgent” action.
Just as the game quickly moved on from the Diaz howler, it will move on from Gordon’s controversial winner, but soon enough there will be another controversy, another top manager fuming at a VAR call.
Until clubs come together in solidarity, this cycle seems destined to keep on repeating.
