Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen has claimed he spotted a crucial mistake from referee Anthony Taylor prior to his side's opener in their 1-1 draw with Arsenal. Despite having to defend for most of the first half, the Red Devils went into the break a goal to the good thanks to a sumptuous free-kick from Bruno Fernandes that flew past a diving David Raya.
It was noted on commentary by Gary Neville that the Arsenal wall looked a little far back, and when measured, it turned out that the distance between the wall and the free-kick was 11.2 yards instead of the usual ten. Eriksen claims he noticed it at the time, and it was spotted by United players when they were defending a similar situation in the second period.
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Eriksen Reacts to Taylor's Yardage Mistake
The Dane stated that he was happy to see how far back the Arsenal wall was
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Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Eriksen, who himself is one of the greatest free-kick takers active in the Premier League, admitted that he was happy to see how far back the Arsenal wall was ahead of the set piece as it gave his captain a greater opportunity of getting the ball up and over the wall while keeping his effort on target:
"Very good, happy that the wall was about 15 metres away. I think I saw it early, even before the kick, you saw how far back they were. It was the same for them when they had it second half and obviously we were a bit angry with the ref for putting us so far back, as we saw when Bruno scored. But yeah, it was very beneficial for us."
As Eriksen alluded to, United found themselves defending the same situation in the second half, but replays showed that their wall crept forward in order to close the gap. Rather than jumping straight up, they jumped towards the ball as Martin Odegaard's kick was taken, allowing Casemiro to head away the danger.
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Arteta Credits Smart Bruno Fernandes For Free-Kick Strike
The Arsenal boss also saw how United benefitted from a wall further back
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While Arteta wasn't keen to hang around and talk to the press about his side's title chances for the remainder of the season, he did credit Bruno Fernandes' smart work to trick the referee into getting the distance wrong.
"He's been smart and he took advantage. That is football," Arteta told Sky Sports. "He's been smarter than the ref. That's OK, they allowed him to do it."
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Given Arsenal's current status as the reigning kings of set pieces in the Premier League, the Gunners may well be disappointed they didn't do more to prevent the goal from happening.