Keith Hackett claims Willian goal was wrongly awarded in West Brom clash v Arsenal
Keith Hackett claims the referee made a major mistake to allow Arsenal’s third goal against West Brom to stand on Sunday night.
Willian’s free-kick in the dying embers of the game at the Emirates Stadium condemned the visitors to a 3-1 defeat that confirmed their Premier League relegation.
The goal may have seemed academic given how late it was but former Premier League referee Hackett was furious at the decision by Peter Bankes not to chalk off the Brazilian’s effort after players went tumbling next to the wall.
“That’s not allowed, this was wrong,” Hackett told West Brom News.
“When you have a wall it has to be one metre away. The referee’s not done his job here.
“That’s a clever move, what he’s done here is he’s happy with the wall and the other action is not a wall, that’s why he’s not penalised it.
“If the defending team form a wall the attacking players have to be one yard away, that’s the law.
“What you have here is a wall and a secondary wall, which wasn’t a wall.
“They were fouling and it’s a free-kick, the goal shouldn’t have stood, they fouled their opponents.”
Academic
We’ve had our fair share of decisions go against us this season, but this isn’t one we’ll be harping on about.
We agree with Hackett that it looked like a free-kick to us as Darnell Furlong was pulled to the side by Arsenal duo Alexandre Lacazette and Mohamed Elneny.
But it’s not exactly a decision that has cost us our Premier League fate.
That was sealed long before Sunday’s game, and we looked toothless against the Gunners in our last chance to extend our survival chances.
A wonder goal from Mateus Pereira was our only bit of quality, and we were hugely unlikely to bring back the deficit before Willian’s late strike.
One benefit of a season in the Championship, though, will be the absence of VAR.
They’re supposed to be picking up decisions like this but they failed to do their job once again.
In other West Brom news, Albion loanee held furious showdown talks with squad before April fixture.
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