Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has hit out at the refereeing of his side’s 0-0 draw with Newcastle on Tuesday, insisting two ‘scandalous’ penalties were missed.
An animated Arteta was lively on the touchline throughout and was stunned to see his side not awarded a penalty on the hour mark when Dan Burn appeared to tug the shirt of Gabriel, while the boss clashed with Eddie Howe in injury time over his appeals for another penalty as Gabriel Martinelli’s cross appeared to hit the hand of Jacob Murphy.
Neither the referee nor VAR were interested in either incident, and Arteta couldn’t believe it.
“Extremely proud of my players. The way we played, the way we dominated the game, the way we tried, the way we continued, the way we controlled the game,” he told Sky Sports.
“We missed in the final third. We had so many situations to finish better, and then we had two scandalous penalties.”
He continued: “They are two penalties, it’s very simple. I’m talking about what I’ve seen, now, and it’s two scandalous penalties.
“Newcastle wanted to set-up like this. It is not the way they play. They have not set-up like this against anyone else.
“When you cannot win you cannot lose and we kept a clean sheet and had a really good performance. Now we go again. I wanted to win the game are we drew it. We should have done some things better in the final third and we should have had two penalties to win the game.”
The point sees Arsenal extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table to eight points, but Manchester City can close that gap to five with their game in hand against Chelsea on Thursday.
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