Arsenal fans cry foul after VAR controversy denies Aston Villa goal

Arsenal fans are convinced that there is a conspiracy against their team involving referees and VAR, pointing to the controversial decision to rule out Aston Villa's goal against Bournemouth on Saturday as evidence.

John McGinn thought he had put Unai Emery’s men ahead against the Cherries early on only for VAR to intervene and rule that the ball had gone out of play before it had been retrieved by Ollie Watkins.

The incident evoked memories of Arsenal’s controversial defeat at Newcastle last season when Anthony Gordon’s effort was allowed to stand, despite Joe Willock appearing to have failed to keep the ball on the honest side of the line before he crossed the ball for Joelinton.

Arsenal supporters, who have already seen a number of contentious decisions go against them during the early months of the campaign, couldn’t believe what they were seeing from Villa Park and felt Bournemouth’s escape represented more evidence that the officials are conspiring against them.

‘The entire league is against Arsenal and they even can’t hide it at this point,’ said one disgruntled Gooner, while another added ‘Same League, different rules’.

‘I’d like Gary neville take on this,’ said another fan who remembered the extent to which the pundit went to prove Gordon’s goal was legitimate.

Richard Keys, meanwhile, weighed in on the controversy and claimed the officials at Stockley Park were guilty of guesswork.

He said: ‘Here we go. Disallowed goal at at Villa because VAR ruled the ball was out of play. I’ve seen nothing to prove it was.

‘Right now it looks as though they were guessing. I’m waiting for proof – or they have to go with the on-field decision.

‘I’ve seen only arguable evidence. No ‘proof’ – only a decision to be made by the eye – so the goal has to stand. Newcastle v Arsenal?’

Ultimately, Villa were denied three points after Evanilson’s injury-time header cancelled out Ross Barkley’s 76th minute opener, much to the frustration of Emery.

‘We played a fantastic game,’ said a rueful Villa manager after the match. ‘We deserved to win and dominated possession. In our process here, progressively we are being demanding to win clearly and this is the process.

‘If we played the game again the plan would be the same. We created chances in the first half, controlled the game perfectly, very good press, threats in behind in the box.

‘The second half we started even better and didn’t concede anything, we score, then after that the match changed because they were playing with new players and at 1-0 they were trying to push into our box.

‘We needed the defence concentrating 100 per cent like we usually were but they scored and we are frustrated because we deserved to win, but there is still work to do.

‘When you are 1-0 up in the last minute, we didn’t control like we needed and this is one thing we have to learn.’