“He has scored 37 goals in just 22 matches since he left Arsenal. He is a typical hybrid of Halaand and Kane. We regret selling him out carelessly because he’s now better than even our Kai Havertz”- Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke expresses his frustration at Mikel Arteta for selling unreal “goal machine” who scored a hat trick in 62 mins last week and left Arsenal in 2022 for just £4M and is now outscoring £65M Kai Havertz

Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey feels that Arsenal’s goal to take the lead against Southampton over the weekend should have been disallowed for offside.

At the Emirates Stadium, the Gunners survived a scare for the second week in a row when Southampton’s Cameron Archer gave them the lead in the second half. But, Kai Havertz’s equalizer three minutes later meant that Arsenal would not remain behind for long.

Arsenal finished the comeback when Mikel Arteta’s team took the lead through Gabriel Martinelli in the 68th minute. The Video Assistant Referee (VAR) reviewed the goal to rule out an offside, but it was nevertheless declared.

The Premier League provided an explanation for their decision on their Match Centre X (formerly Twitter) account. They stated: “The VAR verified and validated the referee’s goal call because Martinelli was in an onside position and it was determined that Merino had no influence on the play.”

Halsey disagrees with the choice, though. Although Martinelli was in the correct and was not offside, he contends that Mikel Merino, who was, had an effect on Aaron Ramsdale, the goalie.

“I have to say I thought it was offside because, like you say, you’re offside if you challenge an opponent for the ball or clearly attempting to play a ball which is close when the action impacts on an opponent, making an obvious action which clearly impacts the opponent’s ability to play the ball,” the former referee said in an interview with The Sun’s The Whistle Blower.

Therefore, in terms of law 11, offside, he was technically offside because he challenged the ball. He did jump and then turn to duck his head, and it was evident how it affected Aaron Ramsdale. Ramsdale believes he will make the challenge and win the ball, but he ducks at the last second, giving it to Martinelli.

Therefore, in my opinion, that goal should have been disallowed because it was obviously offside. It is obvious that he tried to play the ball.

Arsenal defeated Southampton 3-1 thanks to a goal from Bukayo Saka in the 88th minute. They now sit one point behind leaders Liverpool and in third place in the Premier League standings, with the same number of points as Manchester City.