Arsenal: Fans will fume at image of tackle on Saka

Arsenal fans will be fuming after Bukayo Saka was denied a penalty by referee Paul Tierney during the Gunners’ 3-0 defeat on Monday night.

The north London outfit were outplayed at Selhurst Park by Crystal Palace, at least in the first half. Goals from Jean-Philippe Mateta, Jordan Ayew and Wilfried Zaha secured the three points for the hosts, and the loss sees Arsenal remain outside the top four, albeit still in possession of a game in hand over Tottenham Hotspur.

While Mikel Arteta’s side struggled before the break, they had plenty of chances in the second period. Martin Odegaard, Emile Smith Rowe and Eddie Nketiah all came close to scoring, and Arsenal could well have had a penalty when Cheikhou Kouyate appeared to haul down Saka in the box, as a photo posted to Twitter indicates.

TIF Thoughts on Kouyate’s Saka challenge…

The incident occurred in the 51st minute, at a critical point in the game. Arsenal had just begun to impose themselves on the match, and a big chance to halve the deficit would have given them plenty of time afterwards to continue their comeback.

Indeed, it doesn’t take much to knock someone over when they’re running at high speed and you can clearly see the outstretched arm of Kouyate pushing Saka off balance, which is combined with Saka’s left leg getting caught in between the legs of Kouyate which ultimately brings him down.

Jose Enrique even tweeted out after the incident claiming that it should have been a penalty.

Arteta and co have felt hard done by at times this campaign. Decisions against Manchester City and Manchester United, in particular, effectively cost Arsenal points, while only in February, the manager said: “You ask me if I am happy with the decisions that we have had this season – I am not at all. But that is a conversation that I will have with the officials privately. We need explanations. We need explanations for things that happened with VAR and I need an explanation for what happened today [Gabriel Martinelli’s red card v Wolves]. Those conversations are going to happen soon.”

Of course, he is hardly the only boss to be aggrieved with calls that have gone against his side – Jurgen Klopp, Pep Guardiola and Thomas Tuchel have all shared their frustrations with officials throughout the campaign.

Either way, it was Arsenal’s poor performance in the opening 45 minutes that cost them the points. But it’s fair to say that a goal at that point would have completely changed the game as the Gunners could’ve had the confidence to go on and grab an equaliser, should they have scored the penalty. And the loss now leaves Arsenal still behind Tottenham in the race for a top-four place, with only one game in hand now.