The role that Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, played in his team’s third goal against Watford, has come under scrutiny.
Ex-Premier League referee, Dermot Gallagher, has now detailed a slip-up made by the refereeing team.
Arteta became a ball-boy in the build up to Gabriel Martinelli’s strike, leaving his technical area to throw the ball to Bukayo Saka.
Saka took a quick throw into the path of Cedric Soares, who immediately played the ball into Martin Odegaard on the edge of the box.
Odegaard flicked the ball into Alexandre Lacazette, who laid the ball back to Martinelli to fire the ball into the top corner and put Arsenal 3-1 up over the Hornets.
It was a goal that proved to be crucial, with Moussa Sissoko netting late for the hosts to cut Arsenal’s lead to just one goal.
Gallagher, who was a Premier League referee for 15 years, told Sky Sports: “The fourth official is the sole judge of the technical area, he’s meant to monitor the manager inside, he’s meant to stop him going outside and encroaching onto the pitch.
“He’s allowed him to go out, whether he’s been too slow to go out and stop him I don’t know.
“He hasn’t really committed an offence because he’s become almost a ball-boy hasn’t he, he’s retrieved the ball.
“It’s come to him, he’s thrown it back, you wouldn’t expect him to let the ball go past him, you’d have moaned even more then.
“But we talk about this because it actually resulted in a goal, but that’s all he’s done, he’s guilty of coming out of his technical area.”
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