Arsenal discover penalty error as Premier League panel unanimously agree

The Premier League's Key Match Incidents panel has ruled it was an incorrect on-pitch decision to award Sunderland a penalty against Arsenal earlier this month. The Gunners secured all three points against the Black Cats with a 2-0 victory at the Stadium of Light, with plenty of controversy during the game.

Sunderland were awarded a penalty after Ezri Konsa was judged to have fouled Dan Ballard during a corner, with referee John Brooks pointing to the spot and the decision was checked and upheld by VAR. Enzo Le Fee went on to miss the penalty, with David Raya saving the spot-kick, and Arsenal opened the scoring a few minutes later with a long-range effort from Bruno Guimaraes.

Mikel Arteta was furious with the decision, despite Sunderland missing the penalty, and it has now been the subject of a review from the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents panel. The panel agreed 5:0 in favour of the wrong decision being made to award Sunderland a penalty against Arsenal.

However, there was a 3:2 split in favour of there not being enough evidence that supported VAR intervening to overrule the original decision made by the referee. The independent panel is made up of three former players or coaches, one representative from the Premier League, and one from Pro Ref (Professional Game Referees).

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A statement on the decision read: “The panel unanimously felt that the referee's call of a penalty for a holding offence was incorrect. Although it was a very untidy challenge in which Konsa initially had arms around Ballard, Ballard engages in a holding action, which pulls Konsa onto him, so they both fall to the floor.

“The non-VAR intervention was supported, 3:2, with the majority considering that the on-field decision was not a clear and obvious error, given the combined actions from both players.”

Arsenal’s second goal against Sunderland came from the penalty spot with a strike from Bukayo Saka, who was fouled by Reinildo in stoppage time.

“The on-field award of a penalty was supported with an initial holding action by Reinildo followed by a genuine attempt to challenge for the ball - tripping Saka inside the penalty area,” the statement read.

Arteta expressed his anger about the decision to award Sunderland a penalty at the Stadium of Light, with the Arsenal boss labelling the decision as “unbelievable”.

“Look, the first question that we have to discuss is, and this is not acceptable at this level, because it was a beautiful game of football, with two teams, with an atmosphere in this stadium, it was unbelievable,” Arteta told reporters after the game.

“With Sunderland they are so well organised, they are so good in so many phases, they have great players, they create a lot of issues. We have to cope with all of that, because it was a lot in a really difficult week, after Chelsea and Napoli.

“And on top of that, we have to go through what we've done today, that in my opinion is not acceptable. And I watched it 20 times, and I cannot find a way to understand how we even think to give a penalty in that situation, or the way the VAR has to intervene. So I don't know what to think, really.”