Referees remain in Arsene Wenger’s firing line with Arsenal boss still fuming over Manchester City defeat

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James Benge13 November 2017

Arsene Wenger has continued his war of words with Premier League referees, criticising the “naivety” of Michael Oliver in awarding a penalty in Arsenal’s 3-1 loss at Manchester City.

The Gunners boss fumed after Nacho Monreal was adjudged to have brought Raheem Sterling early in the second half of the two side’s Etihad clash. Sergio Aguero subsequently scored from the spot as Arsenal fell to a defeat that leaves them 12 points off the league leaders.

Speaking in the aftermath of the defeat Wenger claimed the standard of refereeing in the Premier League “drops every season” and labelled Raheem Sterling “a good diver”, comments for which he is understood to have narrowly avoided an FA sanction.

That has not stopped Wenger from continuing his critique of officiating in England as he claimed that Premier League referees no longer rank among the world’s best.

“[Sterling] used the naivety of the referee in a very positive way,” Wenger told beIN Sports. “That’s why I said the referees don’t work, they don’t do their homework.

“They’re professional in England, one of the few countries. Look at their schedule and look at how many will go to the World Cup.”

Despite Wenger’s claims it should be noted that England were the only nation to send two sets of match officials to Euro 2016, though it has been reported that there may be no English referees at next summer’s World Cup after Mark Clattenburg’s move to Saudi Arabia.

Wenger’s claims over the penalty and Sterling’s dive were poorly received by Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, who insisted it had been a penalty and made a pointed reference to a fortuitous win for Arsenal at Burnley over a year ago, in his post-match press conference.

And Wenger conceded that he would have expected an Arsenal striker to do just as Sterling had when presented with the chance to win a penalty.

“I didn’t say that in a negative way, I said he used the fact he was in front of our defender [Monreal] to dive and he dived,” he added. “In a few years he’ll say that as well. In the heat of the moment he’ll deny it.

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“He used well his position to get in front. A penalty is a deliberate foul in the box, it’s not a provoked foul in the box. That’s where the difference is and in big games like that you have to look at the defender and what he’s doing, not what the striker is doing.

“The striker will always go down. If it was one of my strikers he would certainly have gone down as well. It was not to blame Raheem Sterling, he used his advantage to fool the referee. That’s what he did. I don’t blame Sterling, I just said it was a dive.”

Wenger insists he is not afraid over any possible FA sanction for his latest comments.

“I don’t mind. I am 35 years in the job, it will not change my mind. In this game we conceded a penalty that was not a penalty and an offside goal that was an offside goal.

“They should look at themselves rather than at other people, who have to absorb their wrong decision and stand up for it, and the comments they make.”

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