Gunners ask referees' chief for clarification

Referees’ chief Keith Hackett has revealed Arsenal called him for clarification of the guidance to officials in the wake of their controversial defeat to Chelsea.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger was incensed Robin van Persie’s effort was ruled out by Rob Styles as Thierry Henry was in an offside position, even though he was not ‘active’.

Arsenal lost the match 2-0 but afterwards the Frenchman said: “We scored a regular goal but the referee made a very bad decision. I associate the referee and linesmen in the same team – the Chelsea team.”

Hackett, head of the Professional Game Match Officials Board, revealed the Highbury club had been in touch for clarification on the latest guidance to referees.

“The club picked up the phone and talked to me personally. It wasn’t an apology, it was to determine whether I had instructed [officials] to change their style of refereeing,” he said.

“I think they were concerned about one or two liberal aspects of the game. They also questioned the offside decision and I was able to confirm this was not a correct decision by the assistant referee.

“Clearly we have a difficult law and interpretations of accuracy on this occasion; in a fraction of a second the assistant referee puts up his flag in the belief Henry becomes active from a passive position.

“When you examine the video many times you can see he is not active.

“Rob Styles is a senior referee, a very competent official, and while we take on board the various criticisms, in that situation the assistant got a very much better view than Rob and he (Styles) is not going to wave the flag down.”

Hackett refused to be drawn on Wenger’s comments, insisting it was the Football Association’s remit to decide whether further action was required.

“In the situation immediately after the match some managers cannot bite their lip,” he told Radio Five Live.

“The challenge for me is to improve the standard of refereeing and we are doing that week in, week out.

“There are some positive comments from managers, and they come from Arsenal and on a fairly regular basis from Chelsea.”