Richard Dunne believes Arsenal were fortunate after Callum Wilson’s late leveller was ruled out at the London Stadium, with the controversial VAR decision all but handing the Gunners the Premier League title.
Richard Dunne reckons Arsenal enjoyed a stroke of luck when Callum Wilson’s last-gasp equaliser was chalked off at the London Stadium on Sunday, and believes it virtually secures the Premier League crown for the Gunners.
The victory leaves Arsenal firmly in the driving seat for the title, pushes West Ham perilously close to Championship football, and effectively ends Manchester City’s hopes of a late surge.
“It was a tough one to take. I’ve watched the incident a few times, and I think it’s a soft, soft foul. If it was going the other way, Arsenal would have been raging about it,” said the former Manchester City defender Dunne in connection with NetBet football betting.
Wilson’s disallowed strike could prove to be the pivotal moment of the entire Premier League campaign, and if that proves to be the case, it would be entirely fitting. Far too many matches have descended into grappling contests at set-pieces, with countless minor infringements going overlooked until a referee appears to penalise arbitrarily.
Dunne built his reputation as a no-nonsense centre-back, but given the current state of affairs in 2026, and with VAR constantly lurking in the shadows, he’s grateful to have hung up his boots long ago, reports the Irish Mirror.
“You can’t jump with your arms, you can’t bump into people, you can’t do anything. Going back through the years, think of the amount of goals that were scored that would have been disallowed, but it’s the way it is.
“We used to criticise referees and stuff like that, now it’s just a situation that’s manipulated to look whatever way you want it to look. It’s difficult to watch at times. All the talk now again is about decisions, referees and VAR.”
For much of the campaign, the title has been Arsenal’s to surrender following a blistering opening. However, they’ve stumbled in recent weeks with City breathing down their necks. A recurring inability to control matches has characterised City’s season, and this weakness may well have denied Pep Guardiola a 7th Premier League trophy.
“There were long parts of the season when I didn’t think City would be in the title race. It felt like they were missing something in terms of defending counter attacks and transitions. They seemed a little bit loose at times,” said Dunne.
“Since Christmas, they’ve been outstanding, but then they had that 15 minutes at Everton when they imploded and conceded three goals. I think that was a sign of the old errors from earlier on in the season coming back to haunt them.”
City’s next fixture is an FA Cup final showdown with Chelsea at Wembley, potentially representing Pep’s final opportunity to secure silverware as City manager. The Catalan tactician is widely tipped to depart his position in the summer, concluding a golden era of Manchester City supremacy.
Should Pep depart this summer, he’ll exit as one of English football’s finest ever managers, with only cross-city rival Sir Alex Ferguson rivalling his achievements. “What Sir Alex Ferguson did was incredible, the number of trophies he won and the amount of teams that he built. That was the one great team I constantly faced in my career, those United sides,” says Dunne, whose Aston Villa side were beaten by Fergie’s United in the 2010 League Cup final.
“There might be more Pep Guardiola-type managers who are more caught up with their styles of football, but he has changed the way the Premier League is played, and I suppose that puts him up there in that category of manager.”
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