Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger angry at referee Mike Dean over penalty incident

Sport360 staff 09:34 01/01/2018
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  • Wenger has a word with Dean on the touchline.

    Furious Arsene Wenger hit out at referee Mike Dean and the festive fixture schedule after Arsenal‘s 1-1 draw at West Brom.

    The Frenchman was angry after Dean awarded the Baggies a last-minute penalty to allow them to snatch a point at The Hawthorns.

    Calum Chambers was adjudged to have handled in the box and Jay Rodriguez cancelled out Alexis Sanchez’s late deflected free-kick which almost gave Arsenal victory on Sunday.

    They now host Chelsea on Wednesday with the Blues having 24 hours longer to prepare to further irritate Wenger.

    He said: “Two things that aren’t normal in the the Premier League is the schedule and referees. Maybe we haven’t played well enough but West Brom had five days to prepare and we had three.

    “I’m ready to play every day as long as our opponent has the same time to recover. It’s not normal. We have the same problem against Chelsea on Wednesday, they played on Saturday.”

    Wenger reserved most of his anger for Dean after he gave the Baggies an 89th-minute penalty when Chambers handled Kieran Gibbs’ cross, just six minutes after Sanchez’s free-kick deflected in off James McClean.

    “I think the referee has not even seen it, he’s not seen it,” he said, following his record-breaking 811th Premier League game in charge.

    “That’s my opinion, but he will tell you he has seen it. It wasn’t a penalty. It was not a deliberate handball. The arm was not up.

    “You can not play football when you are as close as that. It is impossible. Where do you put you arms when you move, in your pocket? There are no pockets in the shorts.

    “We fought very hard years ago for the referees to become professional, yet we see no improvement and you can not say a word against it because they are untouchable.”

    Albion extended their winless run to 19 league games and sit joint bottom but boss Alan Pardew believes his players showed character.

    He said: “I think I’d be very upset if it was given against me, it was a tough penalty, but obviously the ball has hit his arm.

    “There was a lot of pressure on us, being bottom of the league and a lot of the teams around the bottom having won. We had to deal with the pressure and fair play to the players they did.”

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