The referee and VAR may have made a huge mistake in not awarding a penalty to Arsenal after Gabriel Jesus was pulled to the ground in the box this weekend.
The Gunners have been flying in the Premier League so far this season, but for the first time in their opening 11 matches, they had to settle for a draw.
Indeed, travelling away to Southampton, Granit Xhaka fired his side into the lead, but a second-half goal from Stuart Armstrong meant the game ended all square at 1-1.
However, things could have been very different had the officials awarded a penalty when Jesus seemed to be tugged to the floor inside the Saints’ penalty area.
The Brazilian forward got the wrong side of defender Duje Caleta-Car but was then stopped from getting his shot away when the centre-back wrapped both his arms around the Arsenal player.
TIF Thoughts on the incident and Arsenal…
Seeing as Chelsea were recently handed a penalty against Manchester United when midfielder Scott McTominay – who employed a similar rugby-tackle tactic to stop his man – it was a surprise to see Caleta-Car get away with that.
Evidently, though, the referee did not deem it worthy of a foul to award the penalty, as VAR backed the on-field decision and decided against intervening to overturn the call.
In the end, that proved costly for the Gunners as they were denied a big opportunity to then go 2-0 up in the game. Southampton later grabbed an equaliser and managed to hang on for a draw, meaning Arsenal are now only top of the league by two points instead of four.
Was it a penalty?
Yes
No
