Arsenal: 4 negatives from 2-0 win over Newcastle

4. More Shocking Refereeing Decisions

Due to Liverpool blowing Arsenal away at Anfield, Sadio Mane’s scissor kick tackle on White was mostly ignored.

It was a cynical and completely unnecessary challenge from behind, with the ball already a few yards out of play, and he earned a yellow card that could easily have been red given the serious foul play involved. If he had have received his marching orders, who knows what the score would have been.

On Saturday there was another incident, this time with Jamaal Lascelles, who somehow got away scot free for a nasty elbow into the face of Martinelli. At the very least it was a penalty.

There was nothing shoulder-to-shoulder about it and when viewed back on the replay he even followed through with his elbow just to make sure he gets the Brazilian with as much force as he could in the face.

But the negative isn’t that Arsenal are not getting these decisions in their favour, it’s that incidents like these are becoming more prevalent this season as referees aim for more free-flowing football. Fans all want that, but there has to be a line drawn. Teams like Newcastle will benefit from this, whereas an Arsenal team who don’t have the same level of ‘nastiness’ in them will suffer.

In general, this team has to find a bit more sh*thouse about them. If they don’t they’ll keep getting on the wrong end of situations like this and be left to bemoan what could be further injury.

No hiding away from it though, it was a clear foul and a poor miss from VAR and the referee.