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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was taken aback by VAR’s decision to rule out a goal for his team before Jamie Vardy came off the bench to score in Leicester’s 1-0 win in North London.
Arsenal had plenty of ball during Sunday’s game, but were left to ruin an early effort by Alexandre Lacazette that was canceled.
The French forward headed in a Dani Ceballos corner, but the goal was scored in chalk when Granit Xhaka was deemed to have blocked Kasper Schmeichel’s vision in an offside position.
The decision stumped the Arsenal bench during the match and manager Mikel Arteta was unhappy with the call from referee Craig Pawson and the VAR team.
Arteta said: “I’m really disappointed. We got our hands on it in the first half and I don’t know how the heck the goal was disallowed.
“To be fair, I was very satisfied with the first half and the way we pushed and the aggression we showed against a team that is very capable of breaking that pressure and creating chances against you.
“We were very at the top of the game, we restricted them to nothing. We scored a goal from the set pieces, I don’t know how it was disallowed.”
To make the night worse, Arsenal lost David Luiz and Bukayo Saka to injuries during the second half.
Arteta added: “We’ve lost a few players in the last week or so. David had a muscle problem and couldn’t continue, so we’ll have to evaluate him in the next 48 hours.”
Brendan Rodgers praised Vardy’s impact as he came off the bench to give Leicester their first league win away from Arsenal in 47 years and continue his good form against the Gunners.
Having missed the last two games with a calf problem, Vardy was fit enough to be included among the substitutes at Emirates Stadium and headed home with the only goal of the game.
It was Vardy’s 11th goal in the Premier League against Arsenal, only Wayne Rooney can boast more, and it gave Leicester a victory in a game where they had to absorb a lot of pressure from the hosts.
Rodgers revealed after the game that he had always planned to give Vardy the final 30 minutes and had primed his team for the 33-year-old to do the damage.
“The idea was always to attract Jamie, he is always a great threat and he brings great confidence to the team,” he said.
“He’s a world-class forward and he’s up there to get the ball square.
“He’s an incredible talent and we would have loved to have started him, but he came out with his calf, which we just needed to make sure we breastfeed him again.
“The plan was to stay in the game and then he can come in for 30 minutes and stretch the game for us.
“It’s always like this, in every game he seems to be scoring and he’s disappointed not to have another because he was one-on-one at a slight angle.
“It was a real quality moment in the game. Youri (Tielemans) makes a perfect pass but it all came from the race. I always talk about people running behind and the Cengiz Under race was great.
“He squared it when he could have done it himself and Jamie is there to finish, a brilliant goal to win the game.”
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