MIKEL ARTETA
Mikel Arteta claims that Bruno Fernandes was “smarter” than referee Anthony Taylor because of his free kick that put Manchester United ahead against Arsenal in Sunday’s 1-1 draw; the referee moved the defensive wall 11.2 yards back, and Gary Neville chastised Arsenal for the incident.
Although Mikel Arteta did not criticize Anthony Taylor for sending Arsenal’s defensive wall too far back for Bruno Fernandes’ free-kick during their 1-1 draw, he did say that the Manchester United captain was “smarter” than the referee for taking advantage of the situation to score his excellent goal.
Prior to Fernandes curling a dead ball inside the near post just before halftime, broadcast technology revealed that Taylor had marched the Arsenal defensive line 11.2 yards back, more than the minimum 10 yards required by the Laws of the Game.
Gary Neville stated on the Gary Neville Podcast, “The referee is ultimately pushing them back too far, which is a mistake, but normally you would sense you’re too far away and creep forward.”
“It turns out that Bruno Fernandes has the ability to play it over the wall, and they didn’t do that.”
Mikel Arteta congratulated Fernandes for taking full advantage of the opportunity, but he declined to comment on the incident.
His statement to Sky Sports was, “He’s been smart and he took advantage, that is football.” “Compared to the referee, he has been smarter. It’s okay, they let him do that.
Declan Rice, who scored Arsenal’s equalizer after halftime and was named player of the match, accepted responsibility for the goal, but he also thought it had been pushed too far back.
He told Sky Sports, “I haven’t seen it return, but it felt like a couple of us jumped and some of us didn’t.” From the wall’s point of view, we could have performed much better because it seemed like the ball passed over us at a fairly low altitude.
“It did feel like the wall was far back. Even when Martin [Odegaard] took our free-kick, they felt farther back than normal. However, the referee decides that.
Following halftime, Taylor seemed to go over 10 yards once more when indicating the potential location of Manchester United’s defensive wall as another free-kick from Martin Odegaard was being lined up.
Noussair Mazraoui asked Taylor from a distance, as Neville had advised Arsenal should, and the wall itself moved forward in anticipation of Odegaard’s shot, doing its job when his attempt bounced back to safety.
Ruben Amorim, the head coach of Manchester United, told Sky Sports that although he had observed problems with both free kicks, he had no plans to assist Arsenal before Fernandes’ first game.
“One for them and one for us was fair. Bruno was with us, and he resolved the issue.
After the game, Christian Eriksen, a midfielder for Manchester United who has eight Premier League free kicks, explained the significant difference—even 1.2 yards more would make a dead-ball specialist.
Telling Sky Sports, “It makes a very big difference,” You don’t need to hit the ball as high once it’s over the wall; instead, you should focus on their back distance, number of meters, and jumping technique. Thus, it’s simpler and provides Bruno with a little more room to hang it over the wall.
“It was excellent. The fact that the wall was only 15 meters away made it easier for him to cover it.
“I noticed early on that the wall was quite far back. You could see how far behind they were even before the kick, and it was the same when they had it in the second half. After Bruno scored, we were obviously a little upset with the referee at the time for placing us so far back.
“However, I believe it was only advantageous to us.”
