Gabriel has backed up Mikel Arteta’s claims that Arsenal were denied two “scandalous” penalties against Newcastle.
Arsenal failed to increase their lead at the top of the Premier League table on Tuesday night as Newcastle left Emirates Stadium with a 0-0 draw. Referee Andy Madley handed out eight yellow cards in a feisty game in north London, but turned down two appeals for penalties by the home side.
One was over an alleged handball inside the Newcastle penalty area late on, which came after an incident involving Dan Burn and Gabriel during an Arsenal free kick. Arteta was visibly angry in his post-match interview and blasted the officials for missing “two scandalous penalties”.
Gabriel clearly agrees with his manager, because he took to Twitter just after midnight to share a video of the second incident with a hand-to-face emoji as the caption. The clip, which has been viewed 1.2million times, shows Burn and Gabriel battling to reach a cross first inside the box.
The first angle sees the Arsenal centre-back fall to the floor under pressure from Burn and Sven Botman before goalkeeper Nick Pope punches the ball clear. On the second angle, Burn clearly has a hold of Gabriel’s shirt.
Arteta was extremely animated on the touchline throughout the game and did not hold back when speaking to the press post-match. “I’m really proud of the way we played, the way we dominated the game,” he began.
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“We lacked that spark in the final third to find the opening to find the right moment and extra pass and a little bit the finishing quality. We had a lot of situations around the box to do better and then yeah, there were two scandalous penalties.”
Asked which penalty claim annoyed him the most, he replied bluntly: “Both of them. It’s not particular. It’s a penalty or not a penalty and these are both penalties.”
Arteta was asked whether he felt Madley was in control of the match. “He has the whistle so he has control,” the Spaniard said. “I’m not here to talk about the referees, sorry.”
A win would have sent Arsenal 10 points clear of Manchester City ahead of their match against Chelsea on Thursday. As it is, Arsenal have to be content with an eight-point gap, and Arteta rejected the notion it was a case of two points dropped.
“It’s not that. It’s not about the feeling,” he said. “I feel the team was on top, we were chasing it, we really wanted it. You could see the team was doing everything to win it. We lacked that in the final third and then we lacked the two big decisions, obviously.”
