A Match of the Day boycott didn’t stop Alan Shearer and Ian Wright from debating whether Arsenal’s opener against Fulham should have stood.
Alan Shearer and Ian Wright have disagreed as to whether Arsenal’s opening goal against Fulham at the weekend should have stood. Gabriel Magalhaes gave the Gunners the lead at Craven Cottage with a towering header, rising above Tosin Adarabioyo and Tim Ream to nod the ball past Bernd Leno.
The former Newcastle United striker claimed there was a reason for the referee to rule out the goal after Ben White was seen lurking in an offside position in the six-yard box at the time of his teammates’ goal. However, the Video Assistant Referee deemed that the England international was not impeding, nor interfering, with the opponents’ goalkeeper and Gabriel’s opener stood.
Arsenal saw a goal chalked off in their recent win over Leicester City when White was the centre of attention during a similar incident. Despite Shearer’s claims, Wright didn’t believe that there was anything contentious about the north London outfits’ goal.
“It wouldn’t have surprised me [to see the goal disallowed] because Ben White is actually blocking the goalkeeper,” Shearer told Premier League Productions, as quoted by the Metro. “By the time he actually unblocks him it’s too late for the keeper to make a decision whether he’s going to come or not.
“The ball is already in the air, it’s practically in the six-yard box. He might not have come for it, or he may have, but that option was taken away from him because of the blocking there.
“It’s a good ball in, it’s a good header, but he is blocking him right up to the very last second, Ben White, so it wouldn’t have surprised me [if it was ruled out]. Having said that, it wouldn’t have changed anything today because Arsenal were much better than them.”
Wright pointed a finger at Leno, who he claims has struggled with asserting his dominance in the penalty area since his days at Arsenal. The former Gunners striker said: ” They’ve probably trained with him a lot and know what he’s about in terms of coming for crosses.
“I always thought that he was pretty weak with crosses. And even getting blocked in by Ben White, who’s not actually really physically holding him. He’s just kind of in the way.
“He could just move him out the way. You [eventually] see him move him, but he should have done that ages before. He should not have let him get in front because if he does that the referee would see that there’s interference and he probably would have maybe given a foul.
“We’ve seen how easily they do give fouls against goalkeepers. But I think with Bernd Leno that’s his main weakness, he doesn’t want to come into that area. I think Ben White used his experience in that respect.”
Follow us on Twitter to get regular sports updates.