Cesc Fabregas has blasted the decision to award Manchester City a penalty during their 2-1 Premier League win over Arsenal on Saturday.
The Gunners took the lead at the Emirates Stadium thanks to a calm finish from Bukayo Saka, shortly after Arsenal thought they should’ve had a penalty when Martin Odegaard went down inside the box under a challenge from Ederson.
But, on-field referee Stuart Attwell waved away the claims before VAR official Jarred Gillett deemed there not to be a clear and obvious error.
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Attwell then decided not to award a penalty to Man City when Bernardo Silva was felled by Granit Xhaka in the second half, only for Gillett to recommend that he took another look at the incident on the pitch-side monitor before overturning his original call.
Riyad Mahrez slotted away the penalty to bring City level, before Arsenal central defender Gabriel Magalhaes was sent off for a second bookable offence after.
The visitors pushed for a winning goal and were rewarded in stoppage time when Rodri found space in the box before slotting a shot past Aaron Ramsdale in the Arsenal goal to give them the three points.
But former Chelsea and Arsenal player Fabregas has hit out at the official’s call to award Man City a penalty, describing it as a ‘terrible decision.’
When challenged by a supporter on Twitter who said it was a penalty, Fabregas responded by saying: ‘He [Bernardo Silva] was already falling.’
Speaking after the game, Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale took a swipe at the penalty decisions and called for officials to reduce the inconsistencies.
‘I am basing it on both penalties – the inconsistency of going to the screen, the referee might have ruled out it straight away when he looked at it,’ the goalkeeper told BT Sport. ‘But it is the fact he went to look at it.
‘Both in real time he said no penalty, but only gets told to look at one. Theirs was soft for me but he gets told to look and has given it.
‘I am at the other end of the pitch for our penalty shout. The goalkeeper comes out with his foot and he either catches him or the ball. The Bernardo one, he stood him up and it got given. Penalties are penalties, but for us it is getting told to look at the screen.
‘Both penalties, I don’t know why the referee is told to see one and not the other. It is there for a reason, go and use it. It is the inconsistency. The whole point is to help the game out, in real time it didn’t look like one and slow it down on a screen and it is given.’
