Jack Wilshere blamed refereeing decisions for Arsenal’s result against Manchester City in the League Cup final, and fans weren’t too happy about it.
After taking a day to reflect on the match, Wilshere posted on Instagram to express his displeasure with the officiating.
He argued that the referee should’ve disallowed the first goal for a foul by Aguero on Mustafi.
Then he pointed out Leroy Sane was in an offside position for Vincent Kompany’s goal. Finally, he talked about Fernandinho deserving a second yellow after a number of first-half fouls.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfqzZkxhUDJ/?hl=en&taken-by=jackwilshere
“Hard to put into words my emotions about yesterday” he said. “City are a good team and deserved to win yesterday.
“That being said I can’t accept some of the decisions that went against us yesterday. Whatever you say about the first goal, it’s a foul. The second goal is offside. There should have been a second yellow in the first half. Yes this happens in football but it’s still hard to accept. And people will say we are looking for excuses but these are facts.”
For the most part, it’s just embarrassing to have one of the players who performed so poorly trying to turn that round on the referee.
Arsenal fans weren’t happy about it on social media, as this very small sample shows (we’d have been here all day if we included more, but this delivers a flavour):
It’s actually embarrassing the way players (Wilshere in this case) have reacted about yesterday. Claiming a foul and an offside for first two goals? Absolutely feeble excuse. Feeble mentality.
— Mikey Boyd (@mike_boyd88) February 26, 2018
Jack needs to delete that.
A
S
A
PIt wasn't a foul.
And it definitely wasn't offside.
— Thread Merchant (@ArsendWenger) February 26, 2018
Really not a fan of Wilshere blaming the final defeat on officials. The first goal was not a foul. It was smart play from Agüero and horrific decision making from Mustafi. Mustafi's embarrassing defending ultimately led to the second goal. It was all Arsenal's doing.
— Kai. (@ozrikk) February 26, 2018
Even for Arsenal fans, it’s hard to argue any of Wilshere’s points with conviction.
Mustafi did get a slight nudge that prevented him going for the ball, but it wasn’t anything substantial. Plus, the German was already out of position at that point.
Sane was offside for the second, but didn’t block the goalkeeper’s view, or try to play the ball.
Perhaps Fernandinho did deserve a second yellow, considering the number of times he went through Wilshere. It would’ve been harsh though.
At this point, Arsenal just need to accept defeat and try to do better on Thursday. They can start by accepting their own culpability otherwise how else can they expect to change things if they think they are only losing because they are unlucky?