Wolves fans are still hurting from losing right at the death against Arsenal – and there was particular frustration about the first goal for the Gunners.
Rob Edwards suffered a fifth defeat in five down at the Emirates Stadium, with Yerson Mosquera’s injury-time own goal leaving the Old Gold faithful gutted.
Wolves were just moments away from picking up a very respectable point against the league leaders, having put in a performance that was full of spirit.
Wolves fans, was the 2-1 defeat to Arsenal the hardest loss to stomach so far this season? 🤔
The final statistics don't really tell the full story!
But it wasn’t to be, with Wolves crashing to a 14th defeat of the campaign.
But there was controversy about the first goal Arsenal scored, which came via Sam Johnstone after Bukayo Saka’s corner hit the post.
Saka was offside in the build up to the concession of the corner. But as he never actually received the ball, no decision was made. Arsenal then got their goal in the new phase.
The incident was looked at on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch show this morning, and Jay Bothroyd’s made some interesting points.
- READ MORE: Rob Edwards makes one big new plea to his Wolves players after gut-wrenching Arsenal loss
Jay Bothroyd has sympathy for Wolves over controversial Arsenal goal
On Ref Watch, former Premier League striker Jay Bothroyd has questioned whether the goal should have stood.
He said: “He’s impacting the play. He’s impacted the play because that’s where he’s going. He’s making a run for that ball. So he’s making the defender make a decision. Which he has to make.
“He doesn’t know Saka is offside because he’s not even facing him – he’s looking at the ball and running backwards.
“I feel he’s definitely impacting the play.”
Former referee Dermot Gallagher added: “Because of how it’s set up. As I said, there’s a possibility that ball goes over and the other player comes in. The assistant has got to wait. He’s got to let the move play out. Because it’s so tight. If that ball ends up in the net, it goes to VAR, and they say ‘It’s a offside position, he’s played the ball.”
Bothroyd argued: “Ultimately, it has ended up in the net. The corner came, and Arsenal scored. I look at it and I say, there is an outcome, OK the phase of play is different, because the ball is dead. But there’s an outcome that happened which was a goal, which cost Wolves.
“These are the scenarios that I allude to when I’m talking about, these small decisions, it doesn’t take long to look at that. They could look at that and say ‘Hold on a second, that’s offside, maybe we should take this back’.”
Why no offside was given against Bukayo Saka
After the game, the PGMOL gave a number of reasons as to why Saka was not flagged offside.
Those were that Saka didn’t affect Toti Gomes’ line of vision, didn’t challenge the opponent, didn’t attempt to play the ball and didn’t impact Toti’s ability to play the ball.
The incident is really frustrating, because Toti obviously has to try and play the ball because he doesn’t want Saka potentially bringing it down behind him.
PGMOL clarify the Bukayo Saka offside incident 🗣️
Thoughts, Wolves fans?🤔
The fact that Saka is making a threatening run in behind should make all of the given reasons irrelevant.
He may not have received the ball, but Toti has still had to act to stop him from getting it.
It is really difficult to understand how Saka was deemed not to be interfering since Toti has had to take action to defend the ball that is intended for the winger.
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