Arsenal legend Martin Keown vented his fury after a penalty was awarded against the Gunners in contentious circumstances.
Referee Istvan Kovacs called a handball against Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino in their Champions League defeat at Inter Milan despite his arm being close to his body and having little to no time to react.
Inter midfielder Hakan Calhanoglu made no mistake from the resulting spot kick in the third minute of first-half stoppage time to seal a 1-0 win for the Serie A side, and the incident left a sour taste in Keown’s mouth.
“Is his arm in an unnatural position? It certainly isn’t,” Keown said on TNT Sports.
“I don’t know who determines that… it’s ruining our game, it certainly ruins Arteta’s team talk.”
Fellow TNT Sports commentator Ally McCoist was in agreement, and says a major rule change to handball laws is required.
“The law has to change and the word ‘deliberate’ has to come back into it,” McCoist said.
“That is not deliberate.”
It’s unlikely a penalty would’ve been awarded if this happened in a Premier League game as new handball laws were introduced before the start of this season.
In the Premier League, referees consider mitigating factors when deciding whether to penalise a handball.
These include the player’s proximity to the ball, whether the player’s arm is used to support their body while falling and whether the player deflects or plays the ball onto their own arms.
The Italian side was perhaps a little fortunate to not have given away a penalty earlier in the contest, with Merino once again in the thick of the action.
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Inter goalkeeper Yann Sommer jumped up and attempted to punch a cross from Gunners winger Gabriel Martinelli to safety.
However, the Swiss international missed the ball and instead made contact with Merino, who got his head to the ball first.
Yet Kovacs did not deem the incident worthy of a penalty and VAR shared the same view.
Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was understandably frustrated after the match regarding Sommer’s incident.
“I feel like we were very harshly done tonight,” Arteta told TNT Sports.
Arteta also felt his team should ‘obviously’ have had a penalty as Sommer ‘punches him [Merino] in the head.’
The Spaniard was also perplexed as to why Kovacs deemed Merino’s handball worthy of a penalty.
“There is no danger in the box, there’s nothing you can do,” Arteta said.
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“The ball is very, very close to your body so I don’t know how you can get away from it.
“But especially if you’re going to give that one, I think the other one has to be 100 per cent a penalty.”
Arsenal were unable to find a route back into the game which also saw Kai Havertz go off with blood pouring from his head following a nasty collision with Inter defender Yann Bisseck.
Arteta’s men have suffered a second defeat on the spin as well as three defeats in their last six outings.
The Gunners must quickly shift focus to a bumper Premier League clash away to Chelsea on Sunday.
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