Arsene Wenger may be facing a request from the Football Association to explain his comments following Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Aston Villa.
BIRMINGHAM: Arsene Wenger may be facing a request from the Football Association (FA) to explain his comments following Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Aston Villa after he effectively accused officials from the home club of influencing referee Lee Mason during the half-time interval.
The French manager and his counterpart Martin O’Neill were also involved in an angry verbal exchange across the technical areas during the second-half at Villa Park on Friday. They had to be separated by the fourth official although neither received any punishment.
But Wenger’s coded accusation that members of the Villa backroom staff spoke to Mason, when Arsenal were leading 1-0 through Denilson’s goal, may well be placed under closer scrutiny as it could be viewed as an accusation that Villa had behaved improperly. “I know exactly how it works here,” Wenger said after seeing his side give up a 2-0 lead. At half-time the referee gets stick and in the second half, every 50-50 decision went to them.
“I decided to wait and see what happened after half-time and I was not disappointed. It is not only at Villa where it happens. I don’t feel the need to elaborate any more.”
The draw left Arsenal 10 points behind leaders Liverpool ahead of Wenger’s reunion with former Gunners captain Tony Adams, now manager of Portsmouth, at the Emirates on Sunday. “We are disappointed, but 58 out of 59 experts had us down to lose the game,” Wenger added. “What happened with Martin was nothing. The dug-outs are very close at Villa. You will have to ask him why it happened.”
O’Neill did admit there was a conversation between his longstanding assistant John Robertson and Mason, but said: “There was someone speaking to the referee at half-time. It was Robertson and he simply asked the referee to explain a decision in the build up to their first goal.”
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