Fire burns, water wets, and the 2023-2024 Premier League offers us both mind-blowing spectacles and incomprehensible refereeing decisions. We had already been treated to “a significant human error” on the side of the VAR referees to cancel a perfectly valid goal from Luis Diaz during Tottenham-Liverpool (2-1), as well as “shame” (dixit Mikel Arteta) of the triple control of the VAR on the hyper-contentious goal of Newcastle-Arsenal (1-0). The incredible Manchester City-Tottenham (3-3) display on Sunday ended with yet another hiccup, not linked to video refereeing in this case.
The Swede Dejan Kulusevski may have equalized with a superb header, in the last minute of play (3-3, 90th), the reigning English (and European) champion was still very threatening in the additional time. So much so that despite a big mistake from Emerson in the central circle, Erling Haaland managed to get up to blindly launch a marvel of a deep ball (90th + 4).
“I won’t comment on Mikel Arteta”
Referee Simon Hooper initially felt the blow by raising his arms to announce that he was leaving the advantage after this tackle from the Spurs defender. Except that he finally whistles to stop this advantage and return to the initial free kick… when Jack Grealish (not at all offside initially) inherits the ball and prepares to challenge Guglielmo Vicario. Enough to drive our Norwegian giant totally crazy, who rushed at Simon Hooper in the process, with a very scary face. After this crazy draw which pushes City back to third place, three lengths behind Arsenal, the former Borussia Dortmund striker shared the video of this controversial game situation with a simple “WTF” in comments.
His manager Pep Guardiola said a little more to the media, all irony: “The master of Commander Anthony Taylor [le patron de l’arbitrage anglais] knows everything about this matter and he hasn’t told me anything. I don’t understand this action but next question, I won’t comment to Mikel Arteta.” And bam, the Skyblues-Gunners rivalry has a bright future ahead of it.