Hleb blasts 'monstrous' errors

Arsenal midfielder vents refereeing frustration

By James Dall   Last updated: 11th April 2008

Hleb blasts 'monstrous' errors

Hleb: Disbelief

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Arsenal midfielder Alexander Hleb has slammed the recent standard of refereeing, labelling it as 'monstrous'.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger was left reeling after he felt two key decisions cost his side a place in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals.

Arsenal were denied a penalty in the first leg of the quarter-final clash against Liverpool when Dirk Kuyt appeared to fell Hleb in the penalty area.

The Frenchman's misery was compounded when The Reds were awarded a late penalty in the second leg as referee Peter Frojdfeldt pointed to the spot after Kolo Toure seemed to catch Ryan Babel.

Crudeness

And Hleb has echoed his manager's disappointment, while highlighting March's 2-1 defeat at Chelsea.

"The Premier League is a very tough competition. Yes, the game is fast and beautiful, but there are also quite a lot of bad tackles and crudeness, and recently also monstrous refereeing mistakes," he said in the Daily Mail

"Chelsea scored a goal against us from an obvious offside position but the referee allowed it. And we scored a goal which was very important for us but it was disallowed for a non-existent offside."

Bone-breaking

The Belarus international also lamented team-mate Eduardo's injury, which is likely to keep him out until the end of the year after Birmingham City's Martin Taylor broke the Croatian's leg.

"There are quite a lot of bone-breaking players here," Hleb continued. "English referees are very liberal to them. They do it because they know there will be no real punishment.

"Eduardo is out for a year, maybe more. His future is under a question mark. The guy who did it was only disqualified for three games. Is it an adequate punishment?"