Callum Wilson breaks silence on disallowed goal against Arsenal | Football

Callum Wilson has criticised the match officials for failing to show consistency after his controversial goal was ruled out during Sunday’s potentially decisive Premier League clash between Arsenal and West Ham.

The fallout from Sunday’s London derby shows no sign of abating as the debate rages on as to whether the Gunners’ enjoyed a huge slice of good fortune when VAR came to their rescue in injury time.

Wilson thought he has earned his side a valuable point in the battle to beat the drop when he fired home from close range after David Raya had spilled the ball under pressure from Pablo.

After a lengthy pause in play, referee Chris Kavanagh overturned his original decision having been asked to review footage on the pitch-side monitor after the video assistants spotted Pablo holding onto Raya’s arm.

PGMOL chief Howard Webb spoke at length on the  Match Officials Mic’d Up show on Tuesday evening defending the decision to dissallow a goal that had huge ramifications at the top and bottom of the table, but Wilson insists justice was far from served.

He told Sky Sports: ‘For me it’s against us, are you saying it’s a foul? Possibly. But of course, there’s incidents that have happened throughout the season that are similar.

‘I just think if there’s consistency then there’s no complaints from anybody and I think with that specific incident five seconds before it there’s obviously other fouls that are in there.

‘So, if you’re going to pull up one you’re going to have to pull up all of them. I think he probably should have just let it see itself out and think it’s just handbags in the box and it is what it is. But it wasn’t to be.

‘I’m going to say yes (it should’ve stood) because I scored the goal for one. But for two, we see a lot of teams nowadays doing a similar situation in the box blocking goalkeepers.

‘We analysed Arsenal’s set-pieces before the match and there was a lot of that going on in there. That’s not just to say they do it, everybody does it.

‘If Trossrad’s facing the ball and it’s a genuine challenge. And if you talk about Pablo’s hand on the goalkeeper as an isolated incident, of course it’s a foul.

‘But if you look at Trossard not even facing the ball, pushing him, Gabriel pulling his shirt, he’s going to have to stop himself from falling somehow.

‘Whether that’s putting his arm out and then trying to hold on to something, which unfortunately was the goalkeeper’s arm. If that was another player and it stops him from jumping up to head the ball it’s not going to get given as a foul. If that’s a foul then Trossard before it is a foul.’

Preserving three valuable points meant Arsenal moved a significant step closer to their first league title in 22 years at the expense of Manchester City who will be powerless to prevent their rivals’ coronation even if they win their last three games, starting with a home fixture against Crystal Palace tonight.

Pep Guardiola believes, however, that the best way to avoid VAR controversies is to win convincingly.

Guardiola feels his City side have been on the wrong end of contentious calls in the past and is still aggrieved by decisions in the FA Cup final defeats of 2024 and 2025.

The City boss wants his players to take VAR out of the equation by playing well enough to remove doubt.

The City manager said: ‘We lost the two finals of the FA Cup because the referees didn’t do their jobs they should do, even the VAR.

‘When this happens it is because we have to do better, not the referees or VAR. I never trust anything since I arrived a long time ago. Always I learned you have to do it better, do it better, be in a position to do it better because you blame yourself with what you have to do, because (VAR) is a flip of a coin.

Guardiola added: ‘You have to do better and better for yourself, and that is focusing on Crystal Palace for us.

‘Of course it is not in our hands in the Premier League. Always I say to the players, ‘Do it, do it, do it better’.

‘I always learned that when you lose the focus, you are in a dangerous situation.

‘The only thing we can do is do it better, that is only in your control.’

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