ARSENAL beat Watford in controversial circumstances on Sunday with a goal many have described as ‘unsporting’.
Claudio Ranieri was left furious when Emile Smith Rowe scored in Sunday’s 1-0 win after Arsenal refused to return the ball despite it being kicked out of play for a Watford injury.
But it’s not the first time Arsenal have seemingly taken advantage to net a winner.
In 1999 Arsenal played on and scored after Sheffield United kicked the ball out for an injury.
The result saw the Gunners win 2-1 in the FA Cup fifth round tie.
And after seeing his team’s lack of sportsmanship, it led to then-boss Arsene Wenger offering the match to be REPLAYED.
Opposition manager Steve Bruce accepted, with the FA also consenting.
And Arsenal went on to win the second clash 2-1 again, this time with two legitimate goals.
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Whether Mikel Arteta makes the same offer to Ranieri remains to be seen.
Speaking after the game, Arteta said: “I have to defend my players my team and my club. We are the most honest all of them.
“Even at some stages we are naive. If he felt like that I apologise, but there was no intention to take an advantage.”
This time, Watford’s Danny Rose kicked the ball out of play due to an injury to team-mate Ozan Tufan.
But Arsenal did not return possession after their throw in.
Instead, Alexandre Lacazette threw the ball to Takehiro Tomiyasu – who continued to play on despite Ismaila Sarr also going down.
And when Smith Rowe found the bottom corner moments later, Watford were up in arms- with Moussa Sissoko also complaining that Ainsley Maitland-Niles had committed a foul.
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Angry Watford boss Ranieri, who clashed with Arteta on the sideline, said after the final whistle: ““Everybody expected Arsenal to give the ball back to us because there was an injured player.
“But after this it was very strange and I said to Arteta at the end that there was no respect in this action. Nothing more, just this.
“Then we got the ball and we were on the counter-attack and in my opinion there was a big foul on Ismaila Sarr but nothing happened and theory scored a goal.”
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
