Why Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s Arsenal winner against Aston Villa should have been disallowed

Arsenal escaped with a win against Aston Villa despite battling with 10 men for 49 minutes - but can thank an oversight from the officials for claiming all three points.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles saw red and Villa had twice led before Calum Chambers equalised.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then won it from a free-kick, six minutes from time, but Unai Emery’s side were fortunate the goal stood.

That’s because Villa should have received an indirect free-kick because of Chambers and David Luiz’s infractions.

Under IFAB’s new laws, if attacking players stand within a yard of the defending wall at free-kicks, then the defending team should receive an indirect free-kick.

Law 13.3 reads: “If, when a free kick is taken, an attacking team player is less than one metre (one yard) from a ‘wall’ formed by three or more defending team players, an indirect free kick is awarded.”

Villa had five men in their wall and Tyrone Mings appeared to remonstrate with referee Jon Moss in the immediate aftermath as the Gunners celebrated.

After Aubameyang’s sixth of the season – and 16th in his last 16 games – Chambers admitted the need to spread the load in order to move away from the side’s currence reliance on the Gabonese.

“We know as a team and we know as a defensive unit that we have to be solid. That we have to shut the door and be stronger,” Chambers said.

“But when you have players like that obviously it does help as well. We’re working every day in training and working on what we need to do and we’ll just keep going.

“Aubameyang’s very key. He’s a quality striker and a lot of the players on this team are quality, so to have him at the top of the team, scoring the goals is brilliant for us.”