Arsenal Manager Arsene Wenger did not hold back when giving his strong opinions on the officiating in his side’s 3-1 home loss to Manchester United tonight. The Gunners dominated the game, owning three quarters of the possession and blasting 33 shots. If not for United keeper David de Gea having an out of this universe performance, tying the Premier League record with 14 saves, the Gunners might have had this one.
There were however two incidents, Alexandre Lacazette versus Marcos Rojo in the first half and Danny Welbeck tangling with Matteo Darmian in the second, in which the referee might have considered award a penalty kick to the Gunners.
On the other side though, United manager Jose Mourinho thought the Gunners were diving.
Overall, Wenger did not have good things to say about the referee Andre Marriner and the crew. During his postgame news conference, Wenger was asked if he was upset that his side didn’t get awarded any PKs.
“I am,” the Frenchman answered.
Wenger then said that he believed those plays warranted penalties and also subtly suggested that United would have gotten the free kicks had they been playing this match at home:
“I don’t know, I have to watch it again, but I thought it was. Yes. We will see. I hope that at Old Trafford it will be the same.”
“Maybe I don’t know every situation in the game. Last night I watched Napoli v Juventus on television. You have seen a top class referees. You want to analyze well?
“Watch that and the difference between them and us and then you see,” Wenger added.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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