The Premier League’s Independent Key Match Incidents Panel has ruled that Anthony Gordon’s winning goal against Arsenal should have stood after Mikel Arteta claimed it was an ‘embarrassing’ decision.
As revealed by ESPN – who have seen the panel’s finding – it was a 4-1 vote in our favour, saying “although Joelinton does have his hands on Gabriel, there isn’t enough to award a foul as Gabriel had made an action to play the ball before any contact,” with it also decided there was no sufficient evidence to deny the goal based on an offside or the ball being out of play.
Elsewhere, all five members of the panel felt Kai Havertz should’ve seen red for his foul on Sean Longstaff, saying it was “a very dangerous challenge and the type of tackle that needs to be eradicated”. The panel also voted 3-2 in favour of Bruno Guimaraes being sent off for lashing out at Jorginho, suggesting each team should’ve had a man sent off. Saying that, does Bruno do that if Havertz was punished correctly? I’m not so sure!
Arteta, Arsenal and its supporters have been fixated on and outraged by the decisions over the past week, but this should put an end to the tedious debate.
We’ll no doubt still hear that there is an agenda against Arsenal and that Newcastle have paid off referees, but given the decisions that have gone against us in the last two seasons, we know that not to be true.
JUST IN!
The Premier League's Independent Key Match Incidents Panel has ruled the referee and the VAR were correct to award Newcastle United's winning goal against Arsenal.
But Havertz and Guimarães should have seen red.
Click the image for the story. https://t.co/USRnAD6StV
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) November 9, 2023
Good to hear an explanation from an independent panel, which includes ex players, show the post match comments from arteta as the crock of 5h1t they were.
In respect of guimaraes, offering the line that he wouldn’t have reacted if havertz had walked is not a good defence. It makes it worse imo, as it suggests pre-meditation. Put simply, guimaraes has done this type of thing previously, has been lucky and needs to rein it in
GoWest!Mag(Quote)