Arteta hails referee ‘courage’ as Arsenal saved by VAR

Arteta hails referee ‘courage’ as Arsenal saved by VAR

Mikel Arteta has praised the courage of the match officials after disallowing West Ham’s late equaliser against Arsenal.

West Ham had a stoppage-time strike from Callum Wilson ruled out after a lengthy VAR check, with the officials determining that Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya had been fouled in the lead-up.

The decision could have a massive impact on the Premier League title race and relegation battle, as Arsenal claimed a nervy 1-0 win at the London Stadium.

Leandro Trossard had scored the decisive goal on 83 minutes, to secure a win which leaves Arsenal two victories from title success.

Arteta admitted his team had to overcome the challenge of early injuries and late pressure, but hailed the referee for showing the bravery to make a potentially season-defining call.

“We lost Ben and we had to adjust the team a little bit; then we lost Richy,” he said.

“But the beauty of this is that the finishers are always ready to make the difference. They had an incredible impact – Martin does an action that is just pure magic to set up Leo to score the goal.

“And then another two moments – David [Raya]’s save at 78, and then the other one is the goal disallowed in the last minutes of the game. I have been asking for them to be consistent and have sometimes been critical, but today they showed a lot of courage, and it was a really brave process, because I think the action deserved that moment.