CESC FABREGAS joined in the furious Arsenal protests after their controversial defeat by Man City on New Year’s Day.
Gunners fans were left outraged as two important VAR decisions both went against them as footage seemed to show they were robbed.
In the first half, the referee’s controversial decision not to award a penalty after Ederson’s challenge on Martin Odegaard inside the City box was not overturned despite being reviewed.
And slow-motion footage has left fans seething as it shows Ederson taking out Odegaard WITHOUT the Brazilian goalkeeper touching the ball.
The Arsenal midfielder appeared to nudge the ball away from Ederson’s boot just as he came sliding out, sending the playmaker crashing to the floor.
Referee Stuart Attwell believed Ederson played the ball and VAR agreed with him.
Although footage tweeted by TV pundit Jake Humphrey after the game showed that wasn’t the case.
Then to add insult to injury, Bernardo Silva went down inside the Arsenal box while under pressure by Xhaka.
Attwell ordered Silva to get up but VAR official Jarred Gillet advised the ref to reconsider and a spot-kick was awarded.
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The Arsenal players complained fervently, adamant that Silva had dived.
Ex-Arsenal midfieder Cesc Fabregas joined in the complaints online.
Former Gunners midfielder Fabregas tweeted: “That’s never a pen. Terrible decision.”
Arsenal’s misfortune at the hands of the referee only got worse when Gabriel was sent off for two quick bookings, the first of which was for scuffing the penalty spot before Mahrez converted.
Rodri would go on to score a 93rd-minute winner as the hosts were unable to hang on to a point.
Arsenal fans were left fuming inside the stadium, as well as online.
Twitter user Deano said: “I’m disgusted with this decision. Ours was more of a pen than theirs ! Why review theirs and not ours ! Ruined the game and we were cheated out of a result today”.
Mark Mann-Bryans of PA Sport summarised on Twitter: “The main issue with the penalty is surely that Stuart Atwell was called over to look at the Xhaka foul but not the Ederson one in the first half. Hard to see where the difference is between the incidents.”.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk