Arsenal women robbed against Chelsea | OneFootball

Arsenal were denied a deserved victory against Chelsea at the Emirates after two legitimate goals were wrongly disallowed by officials, leaving Renée Slegers’ side furious and still chasing the leaders.

Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images

Chelsea struck early through Alyssa Thompson, who was given far too much space before chipping over Daniëlle van Domselaar. It was a poor start from Arsenal, with Katie McCabe’s misplaced pass moments later almost leading to a second.

That early setback jolted Arsenal into life. Alessia Russo and Stina Blackstenius both had chances as Slegers’ side began to dictate play, pinning Chelsea back for long spells. Yet hesitation in front of goal and misplaced passes betrayed a lack of confidence that has dogged them since their Champions League triumph.

Their persistence appeared to pay off early in the second half. A corner caused chaos in the Chelsea area, a poor defensive header falling to Blackstenius, who finished sharply from close range. The celebrations were cut short when the referee, Mel Burgin, ruled the goal out for handball, a decision that stunned players, staff and commentators alike.

“It’s a big goal ruled out for no reason,” the television commentary team said as replays showed there had been no contact with a hand or arm.

Photo by Naomi Baker/Getty Images

The decision enraged Arsenal, with McCabe immediately booked after a late challenge that summed up the sense of injustice the Gunners were feeling.

Slegers responded by introducing Taylor Hinds, Olivia Smith, recently back from a hip injury, and Chloe Kelly as Arsenal chased an equaliser that had already been wrongly denied. Their dominance finally told with four minutes left when Russo forced the ball under Hannah Hampton.

There was a hint of offside in the build-up, but with no VAR, the goal stood. At that point, I called it even on the bad calls and rewrote my headline. I needn’t have bothered.

Arsenal thought they had completed a superb turnaround as the clock ticked past 90 when Frida Maanum broke through and calmly finished, only for the flag to go up once more.

Replays showed she was behind the last defender. It wasn’t even a hard call.

Maanum ‘offside’

This was a match decided by errors that had nothing to do with the players. Arsenal fought back from a dreadful start to control the game and create the better chances, but the officials’ decisions cost them what would have been a vital win.

A victory would have cut the gap to Chelsea to two points and reignited Arsenal’s title race.

Instead, Arsenal were left with a draw that felt like a defeat, and another reminder of how officiating continues to fail the game at the highest level.

Tellingly, after the game, Sonia Bompastor said: “Difficult to make comments because from the dugout you can’t see the same as they can see on the pitch. I can probably understand the Arsenal frustration but I don’t want to make any comment.”

Russo told Sky Sports, “Really disappointed not to take three points. I think we deserved to win and some of the goals we scored were wrongly disallowed. I know the referees have a tough job but it’s a high level we’re at now. I’m frustrated.

“A point is still massive – and more importantly it was a really good performance that we’ll take into the rest of the season.”

Slegers, meanwhile, said, “We were very surprised [Blackstenius’s goal was disallowed]. I don’t see any players calling for it, and you watch it back – I’ve only seen it from one angle, and it doesn’t look like a handball. That’s frustrating, of course.”

On Frida Maanum’s disallowed goal, she said, “The angle is really hard to see. For me, in retrospect watching it on video, it’s hard for me to see so it’s really hard for the referee on the pitch.

“It’s a game where you see momentum shift, Chelsea were on top of us at the start of the game but we came back and showed such a good mentality, so much quality. It’s fine margins, so certain decisions become really big decisions – that’s out of our hands.

“But if you were to ask me now if I was in favour of VAR, I would say yes.”