So after a string of impressive Premiership results and a fine win over Watford, Arsenal take a tiny step back after losing 1-0 to CSKA Moscow, but not before Thierry Henry had a perfectly good goal ruled out because the referee reckoned he handballed it in the build up.
Arsene Wenger admitted he did not see the incident, but was adamant that neither did referee Manuel Gonzalez,
“The referee has not seen anything,” said Wenger afterwards. “I felt it was a goal.
“We have to accept sometimes the referee gives goals because they do not see things.
“Tonight we have something new – that they cancel goals because they saw things which did not exist.
“So that is a new problem they have raised.”
“Above that, why did he not get a red card if he handled the ball?”
“It was a very bad decision, and we have to suffer from it.”
Besides the fact that we’ve never seen an attacking player get a red card for a handball, not the least an accidental one, Wenger should rightly be outraged at a point lost. After admitting his feud with Manchester United and Alex Ferguson has mellowed out over time, Wenger displayed his softer side again with some kind words for CSKA,
“Until they went 1-0 ahead, Moscow were sharper than us, winning more fights than us and finally got the advantage they deserved at that point of the game.
“We tried to attack after that, and they defended in an intelligent way.
“They got a bit of luck with the kind of goal which was cancelled, but overall they have shown great quality.”
It’s nice to see a boss able to put things behind him so quickly and just get on with it for once.