Arsène Wenger delivered a withering attack on the standard of refereeing in the Premier League following the controversial penalty Mike Dean awarded West Bromwich Albion in the closing minutes of the 1-1 draw at The Hawthorns.
Calum Chambers was harshly penalised for handball as Kieran Gibbs tried to lift the ball over the Arsenal defender, giving Jay Rodriguez the chance to equalise from the spot and prompting a furious reaction from Wenger.
“It wasn’t a penalty. There was no handball,” Wenger said after setting a Premier League record of 811 games in charge. “It was not a deliberate handball. When you are as close as that, it’s impossible to play football. You go in the box, they just lift the ball to the arm of the player and it’s a penalty. He didn’t lift his hand. Where do you put your hands? You have no pockets in your shorts.
“I’m angry because we have seen the same things again. I did fight very hard for the referees to become professional many years ago and they did a good job to allow them to be professional. But I see no improvement.
“There are two countries in Europe where you have professional referees, in Italy and in England, and not one English referee will go to the World Cup. But everything is all right. We cannot say a word against it because they’re untouchable. That is the truth. It’s not only me that judges them.”
Alan Pardew, West Brom’s manager, sympathised with Wenger about the penalty and admitted he “would have been very upset if it was given against me”.
Wenger, who also raged against a manic festive schedule that gives some Premier League clubs a lot longer to prepare than others, added in relation to the penalty: “The referee has not seen it. That’s my opinion.
“He will tell you that he has seen it. But ask him. I don’t want to waste my time with them [by speaking to referees after the final whistle]. We have to live with the decision, to swallow it and go to the next game.”
Alexis Sánchez’s free-kick – deflected into the net by James McClean – had put Arsenal ahead and Wenger was in no mood to discuss the prospect of the forward moving to Manchester City. “We play on Wednesday night,” Wenger replied, when asked whether Sánchez may have played his last game for Arsenal. “I have spoken many times about that and I am not ready to talk about it any more.”