Arteta urges VAR 'improvement' after Arsenal suffer controversial West Ham loss

28 December 2023 , 23:04

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Arteta urges VAR 'improvement' after Arsenal suffer controversial West Ham loss

Mikel Arteta questioned the quality of VAR after West Ham's opening goal against Arsenal was allowed to stand following a disappointing 2-0 defeat against the Hammers.

Arteta's men fell behind in controversial circumstances in the 13th minute when Jarrod Bowen pulled the ball back from the byline into the path of Tomas Soucek, who finished with aplomb. However, it looked as though the ball had gone out on television replays.

Despite a lengthy VAR check, there was insufficient evidence to overturn Michael Oliver's on-field decision, leaving Arsenal with a mountain to climb. Former Gunners defender Konstantinos Mavropanos doubled West Ham's leader with a textbook header after the break to seal the points well before Said Benrahma missed a last-gasp penalty.

When he was asked if he felt West Ham's opening goal should have stood post-match, Arteta told Amazon Prime Sport: " I don’t know, I have not seen it. Is the technology good enough to understand what it is and that is probably the question, but I have not seen it.

"We all want the best technology possible so the decisions are clear and today it was inconclusive with the technology that we have, so it’s something we can improve."

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Arteta went on to insist that his team deserved something from the game but conceded that West Ham took their chances and defended their box well. He added: "They won the game so congratulations to them. With what happened on the pitch, I think we deserve much more than what we got. We tried and tried but the difference was made in the two boxes.

Join the debate! What did you make of Arsenal's performance v West Ham? Let us know here.

Mikel Arteta had questions after West Ham's opening goal against Arsenal was allowed to stand by VAR (Sky Sports)

"They had two shots, scored two goals. We had 30 shots and did not score a single goal and we had great chances. I have nothing for the players because you have to praise the players because they tried everything."

Arsenal now head into the final round of fixtures in 2023 two points behind Liverpool, who are top of the Premier League. Arteta admitted that Arsenal are hungry to reclaim top spot as soon as possible to help them get over the disappointment of defeat against West Ham.

He said: " We want to be better, we want to be top of the league and today obviously we are obviously disappointed because we had the effort and the amount of dominance we had in the game, but this only happens in football."

Dan Marsh