In the 34th round of the English Premier League, Arsenal defeated Newcastle United 1:0 at home, taking their points tally to 73 and once again seizing top spot in the league table.
However, the title race is still open. Manchester City, due to their FA Cup semi-final, have played some matches earlier than the others, and if they win the postponed match against Crystal Palace, they could once again reclaim first place.
After the match, Mikel Arteta spoke sharply not only about the victory, but also about controversial episodes. He criticised the fact that in the match against City, Abdukodir Khusanov was not sent off, as well as the situation involving Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope.
According to the Spanish specialist, in the decisive match at the Etihad, if the opponent had been reduced to 10 men, the title race could have taken a completely different turn. He believes that Khusanov should have received a red card in the 53rd minute for a "last-resort foul" against Kai Havertz.
"If on Sunday at the decisive match at the Etihad stadium, Manchester City had been reduced to ten men, everything in the fight for the Premier League title would have gone differently," said Arteta.
At the same time, there was also a controversial moment in the match against Newcastle. In the 74th minute, Nick Pope made a mistake outside the penalty area and committed a foul against Viktor Gyökeres. Although VAR reviewed this episode, the referee did not change his decision and the goalkeeper got away with only a yellow card.
According to Arteta, such decisions can be of decisive importance in the title race. The Guardian expert David Hytner also expressed this view.
In short, Arsenal did their job on the field, but the fight for the title is being decided not only by the game, but also by refereeing decisions. Now every episode has the value of gold.
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