Mikel Arteta was left furious with the officiating after Arsenal’s goalless draw with Newcastle.
The Gunners missed out on the chance to go ten points clear at the top of the Premier League as their perfect home record this season came to an end in frustrating fashion.
Arsenal had appeals for penalties waved away on two occasions, first when Gabriel believed he had been dragged back by Dan Burn and then in the final seconds when the ball hit Jacob Murphy’s arm.
Arteta almost ran onto the pitch when Murphy was penalised, leading to Newcastle boss Eddie Howe confronting the Spaniard as the pair clashed late on.
The Arsenal manager was just as annoyed after the match when asked which of the two was the stronger claim for a spot-kick.
“It’s not about stronger, it’s two penalties,” Arteta told Sky Sports.
“That’s very simple. I’m talking about what I’ve seen now. It’s two scandalous penalties.”
Arsenal now sit eight points clear of Manchester City, though Pep Guardiola’s side can cut into that deficit when they travel to play Chelsea on Thursday.
It was a largely stop-start affair at the Emirates as Newcastle frustrated the Gunners, neither side able to create a huge amount in the way of clear-cut chances.
However, Arteta insisted after the match he was happy with how his team played, believing they performed well enough to take all three points.
“We generated a lot of situations, we had a lot of superiority in the game,” Arteta said.
“We lacked the fact that we needed an extra touch, an extra pass, an extra movement to get clear chances We had enough chances to win the game.
“If you cannot win, you don’t lose. We kept a clean sheet, we had a really good performance and we go again.”
Despite pushing for a late winner, Arsenal’s only change was to bring on Takehiro Tomiyasu, with the bench sorely lacking in attacking options and further emphasising the need for January business.
“We have some injuries, in attacking areas we don’t have that many options,” Arteta said.
“It is what it is. We always try to improve our team, every window is really important because we still have a lot of things to do.”
