Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher believes that Bournemouth’s goal against Arsenal in Saturday’s Premier League match was cancelled out by mistake.
Arsenal defeated Bournemouth 3-0 last Saturday, and this match was full of controversial refereeing decisions, including Ryan Christie’s rough play against Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz’s earned penalty.
According to Gallagher, referee David Coote, who served the match at the Emirates, made his main mistake when at the end, with the score 2-0, he did not count Antoine Semenyo’s goal, seeing a foul on the Gunners goalkeeper David Raye.
“I expected the goal to be counted. Solanke wasn’t looking at the ball, he gave it a little push (to Raya), but is that enough to throw the goalkeeper off balance? The goalkeeper got up right away and didn’t look like he really thought he’d been fouled. I think the simplest solution would be to score a goal and that’s it.”
“The referee ruled that there was a foul on the goalkeeper. He relied on VAR. VAR looked and confirmed the foul, but I expected him to score the goal,” Gallagher was quoted as saying by the Evening Standard.