Arsenal were once again on the wrong end of a controversial refereeing decision during their 1-1 draw with Everton at Goodison Park.
Arsenal went ahead through an impressive Leandro Trossard strike in the first half and despite the changes that Mikel Arteta had made, the visitors were in control at Everton.
At half-time, Arteta then introduced Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli to seemingly ensure that Arsenal’s dominance didn’t fade as the game went on.
However, Darren England awarded Everton a penalty for Myles Lewis-Skelly’s contact on Jack Harrison in the box shortly after the second half had begun.
VAR checked the incident, firstly for a foul and then to make sure that it was inside the box, and England’s decision was eventually confirmed.
Arsenal’s Myles Lewis-Skelly on the wrong end of another poor referee decision
That considered, all of Danny Murphy, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker discussed the incident on Match of the Day, reaching a unanimous verdict.
None of the trio felt as if Lewis-Skelly had fouled Harrison, concluding that both Arsenal and the 18-year-old had been incredibly unfortunate.
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Murphy began: “I personally make him right (Arteta), it was a weird one for me because part of me, my Liverpool bias, thinks please give the penalty.
“But actually I think it’s a really bad decision – it’s never a penalty to me. If anything you could argue that Harrison has kind of, they’re both tugging and pulling each other a bit… it’s a bit soft isn’t it.”
Shearer replied: “Yeah I think it’s very, very soft – no, not enough to give penalty for me, no.
“And they’re not going to overturn it, there is a little bit of contact, look, when he falls he does clip his leg, but not for me no I think that’s very, very harsh.”
Lineker added: “This is why VAR can never work in the current format because you’ve got to decide if it’s enough of a foul which just makes no sense whatsoever.”
Mikel Arteta gives his verdict on Everton’s penalty
When delivering his own verdict Murphy mentioned that Arteta was perplexed by the decision himself.
And when speaking to Match of the Day too, Arteta said he had seen the incident 15 times and still thought it was ‘never a penalty’.
Arteta said: “I am 100% frustrated. We were very much in control of the match. We were hoping in the second half to continue the domination but out of nothing the referee decides to give a penalty.
“I have seen it 15 times – in my opinion it is never a penalty.”
In terms of positives from the game, Arsenal fans were impressed by Jakub Kiwior who stepped in for the injured Gabriel Magalhaes, who will now miss the remainder of the season through a hamstring injury.
