Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta lambasted the "unacceptable" decision to award Sunderland a penalty in his side's 2-0 win over the Black Cats, even as the result kept the Gunners top of the table with a perfect start to their title defence.
Goals from Bruno Guimaraes and Bukayo Saka secured the win, but the match hinged on a moment before either goal arrived. With the score at 0-0, referee John Brooks judged that Ezri Konsa had dragged Dan Ballard to the floor at a Sunderland corner and pointed to the spot. The decision stood after a VAR check, but goalkeeper David Raya dived low to his left to keep out Enzo Le Fee's effort.
Arteta's fury at the penalty call
Arsenal's goals came after Raya's save, but that did not stop Arteta making his feelings known afterwards. "Yeah it's a huge win, but it could have been something very different," the Spaniard, who was booked during the game for leaving his technical area, said on TNT Sports.
Asked how things could have been different, he replied: "You know in what way, in the way that they could have changed the game. You know who." When the reporter raised the penalty decision directly, Arteta did not hold back.
"I'm so upset, it's unacceptable at this level. Unacceptable. This can change the course of the season, the championship. It is not acceptable," he said. "I've seen it 10 times to make sure because I watched it live and I said it's not possible at this level that it can be a penalty, because it is a judo roll, that's what it is, it cannot happen."
"In my view, in any view of someone who has played football, it is not a penalty in any case, in any game, in any context, in any league," he added. Arteta said he would speak to Brooks to make his feelings clear after the interview.
A hard-fought win for Arsenal
The result had looked in doubt for much of the game. Guimaraes, a former Newcastle United captain who joined Arsenal for £75million in the summer, did not put Arsenal ahead until the 58th minute, before Saka added the second.
Sunderland had chances of their own, managing five shots worth 1.64 expected goals, but Arsenal's defence held firm to preserve their unbeaten start to the season.
Praise for Guimaraes and Raya
Despite his anger over the penalty, Arteta was full of praise for his players. "We have unbelievable players with spirit and courage to go again and again," he said. "I am so pleased in one sense and so worried in another."
Of Guimaraes, he said: "Here, you know what it means, to play with such personality and he decided the game." He added that Raya "is also a player who decides football matches when we need it," and credited Sunderland for the way they played and were coached, saying he did not want to take any credit away from them.
