Mikel Arteta has furiously taken aim at the PGMOL following their apology for allowing Ivan Toney’s equaliser against Arsenal to stand.
While the Gunners boss accepted the apology, he insisted that he would only be satisfied if the Gunners had two extra points.
Sportsmail exclusively revealed that VAR official Lee Mason had forgotten to even use the offside lines – which would have ruled Toney’s goal out as Christian Norgaard, who played the ball to the Brentford striker, was offside.
It was an abysmal Premier League weekend for VAR, with Brighton also left aggrieved by a controversial decision that saw Pervis Estupinan’s opener at Crystal Palace incorrectly chalked off.
It led to the Premier League’s referee chief Howard Webb contacting both clubs to acknowledge ‘significant’ errors were made in the VAR process.
Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s huge top-of-the-table clash with second-place Manchester City, Arteta said: ‘We appreciate the apology and the explanation at the same time.
‘That’s it. We have to move on. That has made the players, staff and our fans stronger to pass this hurdle that they put on us.’
But when quizzed on whether he accepts the apology, he said: ‘I will only be satisfied if they give me the two points back which is not going to be the case.’
The Arsenal boss also hit out at Mason, who has been taken off VAR duty for next weekend’s fixtures.
‘We ended the [Brentford] game, after analysing it with the evidence and images, with a huge anger and disappointment,’ he said.
‘We have got a lot of sympathy from a lot of colleagues and in the industry and in football. They are [saying] we cannot play with integrity in the way that we do. And that’s it. We have to move on.
‘That has certainly made the players, the staff, the fans even stronger with a desire to pass this herald that they put on us. We move on with it.’
‘Because that wasn’t a human error. That was a big, big, big not conceiving and understanding your job. That’s not acceptable, I’m sorry. And that cost Arsenal two points and that’s not going to be restored.
‘So we are going have to find those two points somewhere else in the league.
‘But at the same time, we appreciate the apology and the explanations which were really open to be fair.’
The dropped points could be pivotal come the end of the season which is why the Arsenal boss was so incensed.
The Gunners, who are chasing their first title in 19 years, go into Wednesday’s crunch clash three points clear of City, vitally with a game in hand.