Newcastle supporters were left with mixed feelings after they held league leaders Liverpool to a 3-3 draw at St James’ Park. They led the game twice but also their equaliser came in the 90th minute following yet more Mohamed Salah magic.
Yet it was perhaps not the goals or even when they went in that provided the biggest frustration that has certainly bled over to the Arsenal fans who watched well after the full-time whistle. Those of a Gunners persuasion were far more concerned with beating Manchester United which kicked off 45 minutes later and were, at the time, just happy Liverpool had dropped points.
When able to look back at why Newcastle fans were particularly frustrated, three incidents emerged. The first was a barge by Virgil van Dijk on Anthony Gordon.
Off the ball, the Dutchman just slams into the former Everton player and he goes down. It was aggressive, it was unnecessary and it was endangering to the player and certainly worthy of not only a penalty – as it took place in the box – but it was serious foul play and red card worthy too.
Then the challenge from Joe Gomez on Alexander Isak in the box. There is the smallest of touches on the ball which is what would have saved him in the VAR room but now it boils down to whether a player getting a tiny nudge on a ball is enough to not consider an action a foul? Some would say yes, others no.
This was perhaps the least contentious but as the full-time whistle blew by Andrew Madley, Newcastle were attacking and had a three-on-two situation and it looked like a brilliant opportunity. The whistle went and boos rained down from the stands as the home side felt hard done by.
Arsenal will have, at the time, of course, wanted those situations to go in the home side’s favour. Yet there is an irony from the complaints surrounding the arguable Van Dijk red card.
Last season, Arsenal went to Newcastle and Bruno Guimaraes performed a forearm smash on Jorginho. The Italian was floored and it was indeed an act of serious foul play but nothing was given in the match or retrospectively to the surprise of most who saw it.
The consistency of poor decision-making and inconsistency of punishments for the same decisions continues to dominate the league. Arsenal have seen players sent off for circumstances repeated by others who then themselves have not received the same punishment.
For example, William Saliba being sent off for denying a goalscoring opportunity near the halfway line at Bournemouth but Micky van de Ven not sent off for something similar, closer to goal at Crystal Palace. Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard given second bookings for delaying the restart but Dominik Szoboszlai not given the same outcome at Nottingham Forest for kicking the ball away.
Howard Webb explained on the Stick to Football show that he felt a caution would not be necessary because Liverpool were losing the game whereas Arsenal weren’t in both their incidents. Strange how common sense can be applied and yet not applied.