Iraola wasn’t happy with the way Havertz won the penalty (Image: TNT Sports
When Mark Travers brought down Kai Havertz in the first half of Arsenal’s 3-0 victory over Bournemouth, Havertz was astute to win a penalty, but Andoni Iraola, the manager of Bournemouth, felt he dived.
In Arsenal’s 3-0 thumping of the Cherries, Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola charged Kai Havertz with manipulating the referees to get Arsenal a penalty.
Iraola believes the German goalkeeper Mark Travers knew exactly what he was doing when he challenged Havertz in the first half. The Spanish player opened his press conference with a polished statement, saying, “To start, let me say that Arsenal deserved to win today. I disagree with both the penalty and the goal’s disallowed ruling. However, I want to stress again that Arsenal was superior to us and deserved to win.
“The way the game has gone, in my opinion, is not how it should have. I disagree with the choices made, particularly the goal that was rejected. In my opinion, Kai Havertz is the one attempting to make the last-second contact rather than going to the ball to score a goal.
“He tries to pull away from the leg, but they will penalize him if they discover any contact there. They believe they cannot reverse it with the VAR because there has been contact. Also, we forfeit the five to six minutes we had to examine every angle.”
Iraola also took issue with the choice to disqualify Antoine Semenyo’s goal due to David Raya’s foul. “In my opinion, it’s also a goal or a penalty on Philip Billing,” he said. I don’t comprehend the choice. Dominic Solanke was given a foul, but Billing had already been given one.”
Later, he added, “They told me,” in reference to Ryan Christie’s tackle of Bukayo Saka, which may have been red. It isn’t a red card, in my opinion. This is the process: we receive a red card, play three games, and then, two days later, we find out it wasn’t a red card.
“The punishment for a red card is one month without working, it has to be very clear.”
Bournemouth were beaten 3-0 by Arsenal at the Emirates ( Image: Robin Jones – AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Image)
In the meantime, Mikel Arteta exposed Arsenal’s desperate attempt to snap their 20-year Premier League drought.
With two games remaining, Arteta responded, “We’ve done it for nine months now so with two weeks to go, we really want to get it done,” in response to a question about how he was feeling following the victory that kept the pressure on Manchester City. We’ve come a long way since yesterday, and maybe we can win the Premier League here.”
Declan Rice, a £105 million club record signing, and Kai Havertz, a £65 million summer arrival, were also honored by Arteta for their vital contributions to the Cherries’ demise.
“If we spend money, we better do it wisely and in the most effective way, and we are really happy with the impact that Declan had,” the Arsenal manager continued.
“He’s raised not only the level of the team but today we had another big performance and we needed that.”
Arteta commented on Havertz: “He was unbelievable today, honestly, the timing of his movements, how he keeps the ball, how he links with players, his understanding of the game, he was unbelievable.”
