Don't witter on about timekeeping without checking your watch
Arsène Wenger was furious that the referee, Andre Marriner, who took charge of their game against Liverpool, signalled eight minutes of stoppage time but played nearly 12, giving the visitors time not only to concede a penalty in the seventh minute, but to score one of their own in the last. "We conceded a penalty after 11 minutes and the extra time was only eight minutes," he said. "I don't know where this additional time came from."
If he's seen the game again, or read this morning's Sun, he should know by now. The tabloid examines the period in forensic detail: one minute and three seconds elapsed between Liverpool conceding the penalty and
Arsenal scoring it, and Van Persie's celebration – for which he was booked – lasted a further 46 seconds.
Clearly, though, Dirk Kuyt was expecting the worst when he launched an optimistic shot direct from the subsequent kick-off. But those delays gave Liverpool enough time to win a free-kick on the edge of Arsenal's penalty area, which was awarded after 8mins 45sec of stoppage time. Mainly because of the time Arsenal took to retreat 10 yards, it took a full two minutes before Luis Suárez took his shot. Five seconds after that Lucas Leiva tumbled under Emmanuel Eboué's challenge and another penalty was awarded. In all, The Sun calculated that just
4mins 49secs of actual football was played between the end of the 90th minute and the final whistle.
According to Fifa's Law 7, which covers the duration of a match, "the announcement of the additional time does not indicate the exact amount of time left in the match. The time may be increased if the referee considers it appropriate but never reduced."
It's understandable if Wenger is flabbergasted that his side found yet another novel way of not winning a match, but this is one whinge too many.
