Arsene Wenger calls Premier League referees a ‘protected species like lions in a zoo’ after Arsenal lose to Manchester City
Boss reckoned BOTH City’s goals were offside after title hopes crushed as defeat sees them go nine points behind Chelsea
ARSENE WENGER savaged referees — claiming officials are a ‘protected’ species.
The Arsenal boss reckoned BOTH City’s goals were offside as his title hopes were crushed.
He laid into whistlers’ chief Mike Riley, saying: “There is a real problem of refereeing in England, they are a bit in their comfort zone.
Referees are protected like the lions in the zoo. I feel enough is enough.
I looked at the goals — both are offside. The second is five yards offside. But what can I do? That is very difficult to accept in a game of that stature.”
The Gunners are now NINE points behind leaders Chelsea after a disastrous week. Theo Walcott fired them in front yesterday.
But Wenger claimed Leroy Sane was offside when he levelled and that a clearly offside David Silva interfered with Petr Cech’s sight of Raheem Sterling’s winner.
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After blaming ref Martin Atkinson and his assistants, Wenger turned his fire on Riley.
The former ref is now chief of the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, who provide officials for fixtures.
Wenger snapped: “It’s time for the PGMOL to wake up and re-engage their referees to really work, because they’re not working enough.”
Gunners keeper Cech agreed with his manager that Silva was interfering with play when Sterling fired the winner. He said: “There were players in front of goal so I didn’t see the shot.”
City moved up to second but are still seven points adrift of a Chelsea side that has won 11 games in a row. Boss Pep Guardiola said: “It was an important win to close the gap and now we are second.
“Seven points is a huge distance and when a team can make 11 victories in a row, just say congratulations to them. It was a good game. I think we dominated.”
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