Alan Wiley took charge of Arsenal's 4-2 victory over Bolton Wanderers at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night, a game that was marred by a horrendous tackle by William Gallas.
The French defender went in studs high on Bolton's Mark Davis in the centre of the park, a tackle that Wiley had a very good view of, but surprisingly, and more worryingly wrongly allowed play to continue and from that same phase of play Arsenal gained their equaliser to level the score at 2-2.
The tackle in real time looked bad enough as Gallas was over the top of the ball and appeared to stamp on the ankle of the Bolton player. Wiley should have awarded a free kick to Bolton and shown William Gallas a straight red card for serious foul play. Instead the official allowed play to continue so why did the referee miss it?
Could it be because of his positioning? I think Wiley was in the perfect position to judge the tackle and had a clear view of the incident from only 10 yards away. His vision wasn't obstructed by another player so he shouldn't have missed the tackle.
Perhaps he did see the tackle but he felt it was a good one, but the direction of the ball tells you there is no way Gallas could've won the ball. I don't think he has any excuse for missing the tackle, maybe he could have gotten some help from his assistant Ceri Richards however it's a decision the referee should be making.
I don't have any complaint about Owen Coyle's comments, however I can't see how the Bolton manager can blame the referee for his team losing the game, yes they should have had a free kick in the build up to the goal but the defending and goal keeping was poor so I think he should be blaming his players for the loss and not the officials.
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