ANDREW ROBERTSON SAYS referee Mark Clattenburg apologised to the Hull City players at half-time after he’d controversially allowed Alexis Sanchez’s opening goal to stand as Arsenal won 2-0 on Saturday.
The Tigers were holding their own at the Emirates Stadium until Alexis clearly bundled the ball over the line with his hand after 34 minutes to send the Gunners in at the break 1-0 up.
“Yeah it was handball,” Robertson told Sky Sports after the game. “When we came out at half-time, the referee’s apologised to us. He said it was a handball, so he’s obviously looked at it at half-time and seen he was in the wrong.
“It happens so quick that it’s a tough one for the ref, you’ve got to kind of feel sorry for him. At the end of the day, these decisions don’t really go your way when you come to these big stadiums and that’s killed us.
“If you go in 0-0 at half-time, you seen the way we played in the second-half, we could’ve came away with some points.”
Sanchez wrapped up the three points for the Gunners from the penalty spot late on after Hull’s Sam Clucas had been sent off for blocking a goal-bound Lucas Perez effort with his arm, and though Robertson says he admires Clattenburg’s honesty in admitting he made a mistake in the first half, it’s little consolation to him and his team-mates after they came away from a good performance with nothing to show for it.
“He [Clattenburg] says he wasn’t 100 per cent sure whether [if it was a handball],” he said.
“Obviously we can argue that he shouldn’t have given the goal if he wasn’t sure, but I think he argued it the other way, that if he wasn’t sure he had to give the goal.
“That’s the explanation he gave us. Obviously not many referees can admit they’re wrong, so it’s good, but it doesn’t make it any better.”
