Football
Mattias Karen, Arsenal correspondent 7y

Arsene Wenger 'amazed' by 'very soft' Bournemouth penalty decision

LONDON -- Arsene Wenger has said he was "really amazed" with referee Mike Jones' decision to award Bournemouth a "very soft" penalty in Arsenal's 3-1 win at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

The penalty enabled Bournemouth to pull level through Callum Wilson in the 23rd minute after Nacho Monreal was adjudged to have fouled the striker.

It came after Arsenal had a penalty appeal turned down when Alexis Sanchez was tripped -- although that foul appeared to take place just outside the area.

"My view is that we should have had a penalty on Sanchez. And that the [Bournemouth] penalty was a very soft one," Wenger said. "[It was] shoulder to shoulder, and I was really amazed that he gives a penalty."

However, Bournemouth also ended up feeling aggrieved when Jones waved away a second penalty appeal for handball against Monreal when the score was 2-1 in the second half.

Arsenal centre-back Shkodran Mustafi also went unpunished after pushing Steve Cook in the back at a corner.

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said he was unsure about the penalty that was awarded but felt Jones had been wrong not to award a second spot kick.

"That's a difficult one," he said about the first incident. "I'm not trying to duck it but it was at the other end of the pitch from where I was, so I've just seen a coming together of bodies. I've seen no replay.

"The one that was right in front of me I felt was a penalty -- I felt it was a handball. We potentially feel it was a push on Steve Cook from a corner as well, so it's a couple of incidents we feel have gone against us."

Howe pointed out that those kinds of pushes in the area were being clamped down on by referees at the start of the season.

"I'm not a massive fan of really soft penalties, for the campaign that was put together at the beginning of the season. But we're looking for consistency," he said.

Arsenal were pushed back after Bournemouth's equaliser but regained the lead through Theo Walcott in the 53rd minute. Alexis Sanchez finished off the visitors by netting his second goal of the game in injury time.

But Wenger acknowledged that the Bournemouth penalty had unsettled his team.

"When they equalised we became nervous and that's when you can see that the fact that we've had three draws played a little bit on our mind," he said.

"At half-time it was down to us to calm down and focus on the game we wanted to play."

The win ended a run of three straight draws for Arsenal and kept them three points behind leaders Chelsea.

It also highlighted the importance of Sanchez, who scored the first goal when he pounced on a poor backpass from Cook.

"Sanchez, even when he looks dead he is still alive and finds always the resources to do something special when you win the ball back," Wenger said.

"He has that gut conditioning that, when the ball comes to him again, he always finds that extra gear to be dangerous."

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