After another pretty damn impressive fight back by Arsenal at the Emirates, a hallmark of their season so far, Gooners all over must have been enjoying every minute watching Thierry Henry winding up Chris Kirkland every chance he got.
We thought for sure Paul Jewell would have a few choice words for the France striker, but instead saved his wrath for referee Phil Dowd’s rather impactful performance,
‘I thought we should have had a penalty which would hopefully have made it 2-0,’ said Jewell, whose side are just five points above the relegation zone.
‘It is penalty. He (Flamini) puts his hand on his shoulder. Why would Emile want to go down? Some of the officials don’t understand the game.
‘He (Dowd) has cost our team the points. It could cost us £50million.’
‘One of our players was having treatment, Dowd didn’t let him back on and then it looked like offside for their goal,’ he added on Sky Sports 1.
‘I don’t like blaming referees but why is our player not allowed back on the pitch after receiving treatment? Even the fourth official doesn’t know why he has not been allowed back on and if the officials don’t understand each other we’ve got no chance.
‘I’ll be in trouble (for his comments) but no doubt these fellas (the officials) will have a game next week.’
Jewell asks a good question of Heskey, why did he go to ground? The striker was goal side of Flamini in the area and went down under the very slightest of touches on his shoulder – after all there’s a pretty good reason why, during his “difficult early years“, Didier Drogba was compared to the former Liverpool striker.