Arsenal handed new Sunderland penalty verdict after Mikel Arteta fury as BBC air footage
Mikel Arteta was furious with John Brooks' decision to award a penalty against Arsenal in their win at Sunderland
Former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett has admitted he was glad to see referee John Brooks award Sunderland a penalty against Arsenal. Ezri Konsa was adjudged to have committed a holding offence on Dan Ballard but David Raya superbly saved Enzo Le Fee's spot-kick.
Half-time substitute Bruno Guimaraes then headed down the other end minutes later and fired in the opener. Sunderland pushed for an equaliser but deep into added time, Bukayo Saka won and converted a penalty with Reinildo sent off for a second yellow card.
Sunderland's penalty dominated the post-match discussion with pundits mostly disagreeing with the decision made. Hackett meanwhile, who officiated high-profile matches in the 1980s, was in favour of the foul being given.
He said on in a post to his X account, quote-tweeting a video of the BBC's analysis: "Amazing - they are conditioned and have allowed grappling to blight our game. Good to see a ref do something about it."
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Former Premier League defender Ashley Williams was leading the review into the decision on Match of the Day and completed a detailed analysis on the actually incident to get his point across.
He said: "Look at Ezri Konsa’s left shoulder here - it’s pulled down by Dan Ballard. It means that he spins round and he obviously lands on top of Dan Ballard. Mikel Arteta is right, it's almost a perfect kick toss like in judo. He's got hold of him.
“If you look at Konsa’s elbow getting driven down, he can't do anything about it at this point, he has to roll over. It's very clever by Ballard, but in no way is it a penalty.
“If anything, this has to be a foul the other way. If I'm playing and I get hold of someone that's behind me and I flip them over and go down, every single time I win the award.
Ezri Konsa was involved in two big incidents with Dan Ballard
“And now they've given that penalty, they've set themselves up. Now they have to be consistent and keep doing that every week.”
While Williams was not too pleased, that verdict was nothing compared to the fiery rant Arteta unleashed during his interview with TNT Sports. At first, the Arsenal boss refrained from giving detailed answers until the penalty incident was specifically mentioned.
He said: "I'm so upset, it is unacceptable at this level, unacceptable. It can change the course of the season. I've seen it 10 times to make sure and I said 'it is not possible it is penalty'. It is a judo roll. That's what it is.
"This cannot happen. In my view. I have been involved in football for 27/28 years. It's not a penalty in any game, in any game, in any context in any league."
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