Manchester United were helped out by referee Anthony Taylor during their drew 1-1 with Arsenal at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Bruno Fernandes smashed home a free-kick in first-half stoppage time to give Manchester United the advantage in the game, but Declan Rice equalised midway through the second half to ensure the spoils were shared.
That result means Manchester United are now 14th in the Premier League, while Arsenal have lost even more ground to Liverpool in the title race. Things could have looked a whole lot different, however, if Anthony Taylor didn’t provide an advantage to the Red Devils.
Measuring out the distance of Arsenal’s wall for the free-kick Fernandes scored from, Taylor walked too far and positioned the Gunners 11.2 yards away from the ball, rather than the regular 10 yards.
Gary Neville mentioned in commentary during the game that the wall looked excessively far back from the ball, and Christian Eriksen even stated after the match that Taylor had helped with the goal.
“Very good, happy that the wall was about 15 metres away,” Eriksen responded when asked about the goal. “You saw how far back they were and it was beneficial for us. We felt relief from the fans in the stadium after the goal.”
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta had no issues with the goal, however, simply suggesting that Fernandes had taken advantage of the situation.
“He’s been smart and he took advantage, that is football,” he told Sky Sports. “He’s been smarter than the ref. That’s OK, they allowed him to do it.”
Declan Rice, who stood in the Arsenal wall, highlighted that he felt the distance seemed too far during real-time.
“It felt like a couple of us jumped and some of us didn’t, but I’ve not seen it back,” he told Sky Sports. “It felt like the ball flew over us at quite a low height so, from the wall’s perspective, we could have done a lot better.
“The wall did feel far back. Even on our free-kick, when Martin [Odegaard] took it, they felt far back as well, more than usual. But the referee makes that decision.”
