Arsenal extended their lead in the Premier League title race to eight points after a frustrating draw against Newcastle at the Emirates Stadium. The Gunners will see the result as two points dropped with Manchester City able to close the gap back down to five points if they beat Chelsea on Thursday.
The north Londoners had the chance to move 10 points clear of the reigning champions but were held by a resilient Eddie Howe side who continued their fight in the top four. It was a busy night for referee Andrew Madley who handed out nine bookings in total in a stop-start clash.
The Gunners started strongly but ran out of steam in the second half as they failed to get on the scoresheet after scoring seven goals in their last two fixtures. Gabriel Jesus is set to be sidelined until February with a knee injury as Mikel Arteta admitted his side lacked a 'spark' in attack to find the winning goal.
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Arteta was left in a rage as he saw his side denied two penalties in the draw against the Magpies with the Spaniard caught up in argument with officials and Howe on the touchline. When asked about the two penalty appeals after the match, the Arsenal boss responded: "It is not about which is stronger - they are two penalties.
"That’s very simple. I’m not talking about that [whether he spoke to officials about the penalty claims], I am talking about what I have seen, now. It is two scandalous penalties."
Gabriel Magalhaes appeared to have his shirt pulled by Dan Burn from a free-kick, before Granit Xhaka's cross in the dying minutes of the game seemed to strike Jacob Murphy's hand - with neither resulting in a penalty kick for the Gunners. However, Gary Neville has disagreed with Arteta and feels Arsenal only had one strong appeal for a penalty.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Neville said: "If Mikel Arteta had lost a game of football giving away a penalty like this [Murphy handball] then he would absolutely fuming. The amount of times I used to slide in and try to block crosses: your arm has to be somewhere - you cannot slide in with your arms by your side.
"His [Murphy] arm is not up in the air. That is not a penalty. Never in a million years is that a penalty!
"Arteta would not want that given against Oleksandr Zinchenko, Ben White or Takehiro Tomiyasu. He'd be fuming, it's not a penalty."
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