The final whistle in a dramatic football match often doesn’t end the conversation; it just starts a new one. For everyone involved in Arsenal’s nail-biting 2-1 win over Newcastle United, the talking points have stretched far beyond the scoreline.
While the goals from Mikel Merino and Gabriel will be replayed on highlight reels, it’s a few moments that didn’t result in goals or cards that are now causing the most debate among pundits and fans.
According to a former top-level referee, the outcome of the game could have been dramatically different if the officials had spotted two key incidents involving Newcastle’s captain and one of Arsenal’s star players.
The first of these moments involved Newcastle’s Jamaal Lascelles and Arsenal’s striker, Viktor Gyokeres. Lascelles had just come onto the pitch to replace the injured Tino Livramento.
In a tense tussle inside the penalty area, the Newcastle skipper was seen grabbing Gyokeres by the face and pulling him to the ground.
It was a flash of aggression that happened away from the main action, and it went unpunished by the on-field referee, Jarred Gillett. It also wasn’t reviewed by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR).
This has led to a strong opinion from Keith Hackett, a former Premier League referee. Hackett believes this was a clear mistake by the officials.
He stated that while the referee on the pitch can’t see everything, this is exactly the kind of incident that the VAR system was introduced to catch. In his view, grabbing an opponent’s face is a reckless act that cannot be ignored.
He warned that if such actions are not punished, it encourages more and more holding, pulling, and pushing in the box, which is exactly what the league’s governing body, the PGMOL, promised to crack down on this season.
While Hackett noted that the final decision depends on whether “excessive force” was used, the act itself, in his expert opinion, deserved a sanction, which could have been a red card for Lascelles.
This wasn’t the only moment that left Arsenal feeling hard done by. Earlier in the game, a penalty was initially awarded to Arsenal when Gyokeres went down after a challenge from Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope.
However, after the referee was advised to review the incident on the pitch-side monitor, he overturned his own decision. He determined that Pope had managed to get a touch on the ball before any contact with the player.
This reversal was a huge let-off for Newcastle and a source of frustration for Arsenal, especially when Nick Woltemade soon after put the home team in the lead.
But the controversy didn’t end there. Hackett also weighed in on a separate incident involving the match-winner, Gabriel. Shortly after Newcastle scored their goal, the Arsenal defender appeared to swing an arm that struck Nick Woltemade.
This, too, went unpunished. For Newcastle fans, seeing the player who scored the winning goal stay on the pitch after this was particularly galling. Hackett was very clear in his assessment of this event.
He described Gabriel’s action as “effectively a punch,” which is automatically a red-card offense. He firmly believes that VAR should have intervened, telling the referee to take a second look.
Had that happened, Gabriel would almost certainly have been sent off, and he would not have been on the field to score the dramatic late header that won the game for Arsenal.
So, while the record books will show a hard-fought victory for Arsenal, the story of the match is filled with “what-ifs.” What if Lascelles had been sent off for grabbing Gyokeres’ face? What if Gabriel had been shown a red card for his strike on Woltemade?
The answers to these questions would have completely changed the dynamics of the match. It leaves both sets of supporters with a sense of injustice Arsenal over the overturned penalty and Newcastle over the unpunished offenses against their players.
The discussions surrounding this game are a perfect example of how the introduction of VAR was meant to bring clarity, but often it only adds new layers of debate and controversy long after the final whistle has blown.
