‘That’s never a pen. Terrible decision’
Former Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas was left angered by the decision to award Manchester City a penalty and described it as a “terrible decision.”
Referee Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot after Granit Xhaka was adjudged to have fouled Bernardo Silva in the box after he was advised to change his original decision by VAR.
Riyad Mahrez stepped up to dispatch the spot-kick, but the decision was met with anger from supporters inside the Emirates who felt that Silva had deliberately thrown himself to the ground, with Fabregas in agreement.
Speaking on his Twitter account, he said: “That’s never a pen.
“Terrible decision.”
That’s never a pen. Terrible decision.
— Cesc FÃ bregas Soler (@cesc4official) January 1, 2022
Arsenal’s afternoon had got off to the perfect start as Bukayo Saka finished off a fine-flowing move from the Gunners to put them into a deserved first-half lead.
But after the penalty, the home side’s afternoon went from good to bad in the space of five minutes as Gabriel was shown a second yellow card after clattering into Gabriel Jesus.
The defender had been shown his first yellow just minutes earlier after he was spotted tampering with the penalty spot before Mahrez converted from 12 yards.
Despite the one-man disadvantage, Mikel Arteta’s – who watched on from home after testing positive for Covid-19 earlier in the week – side put up a resilient fight but were condemned to late heartbreak after Rodri tapped home from close-range in the dying seconds of injury time to gift Pep Guardiola’s side all three points.
It means City have now won 11 games in a row, sitting top of the Premier League by the same amount of points and look well on course to retain the title.
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