Search icon

Football

02nd Oct 2016

Thierry Henry’s impartial take on Laurent Koscielny’s handball goal was too much for some fans

How predictable

Ben Kiely

Even the most hard-nosed Gooner will put their hand up and admit they really got away with that result away to Burnley on Sunday evening.

The drab affair seemed destined to finish as a goalless draw, but Arsenal’s luck finally came in seconds from the end when Laurent Koscielny scored the flukiest winners.

A ball was whipped in from the right flank and the French defender sent it into the net from close-range after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain whiffed it. Fortunately for Koscielny, the fact that the Englishman failed to get a touch on it meant that he remained onside.

What’s doubly fortunate for the Gunners is that the referee didn’t spot the ball coming off Koscielny’s arm before sailing past the keeper. Anyone (with video replay technology) could see that the goal should have been disallowed.

Koscielny HB

Thierry Henry was in the studio for the game and when he was asked to give his take on the incident, he confirmed that it wasn’t offside, but when it came to the handball, he got a little weird.

Despite vowing not to “sit on the fence,” Henry didn’t really come down on either side of it. He admitted that he could see why a handball would have been given and why the referee could have given a free-out, but that sort of vague language didn’t sit well with the unruly Twitter mob.

Their reaction to his assessment should be definitive proof that Henry’s infamous handball that knocked Ireland out of the World Cup play-off is going to haunt him forever.

Of course, there’s always one.

The GAA Hour podcast is out every Monday and Thursday. Subscribe here on iTunes or listen on Soundcloud (if you want to).