Mikel Arteta: Lee Mason VAR oversight 'not acceptable'

Mikel Arteta has accused video assistant referee Lee Mason of not knowing his job after his error led to Brentford being wrongly awarded an equalising goal at Arsenal on Saturday.

Mason, who operates as a full-time VAR official for the Professional Game Match Officials Limited, has been stood down from duty for the next round of Premier League games following his gaffe.

He did not investigate the play immediately leading to Brentford's equaliser at the Emirates Stadium when Christian Norgaard appeared to be in an offside position before he hooked the ball across goal for Ivan Toney to score.

Mason was not selected for a round of matches in September after wrongly disallowing a Newcastle goal for a foul in their match at home to Crystal Palace.

Toney’s goal cancelled out Leandro Trossard’s opener, leading to a 1-1 draw which sees Arsenal go into Wednesday night’s clash at home to nearest challengers Manchester City just three points clear at the summit.

"We ended the game, after analysing all the evidence that we’ve had with the images, with a huge anger and disappointment," said Arteta.

"That wasn’t a human error, that was a big not conceiving and understanding your job and that’s not acceptable, I’m sorry.

"That costs Arsenal two points that’s not going to be restored. We’re going to have to find those two points somewhere in the league.

We need your consent to load this YouTube content We use YouTube to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content. Manage Preferences

"At the same time we appreciate the apology and the explanations and we got a lot of sympathy from colleagues in the industry and in football who