Arsenal’s dominance over Newcastle United warranted three points, but there have been some complaints about the match winner.
Against the run of play, Nick Woltemade put Newcastle ahead just before half-time, forcing the Gunners to head into the interval behind.
Given that Arsenal hadn’t come from behind to win at St James’ Park in 39 years, the odds were stacked against the visitors, but Mikel Arteta’s side turned things around.
Mikel Merino netted the equaliser in the 84th minute, and in the dying embers, Gabriel Magalhaes scored the winner, going from villain to hero.
Alejandro Moreno thinks Gabriel Magalhaes could’ve been sent off against Newcastle United
Gabriel was a villain as the Brazilian was heavily involved in the game for the wrong reasons, despite his authoritative display at the back.
The defender was weak as Woltemade scored from a set-piece, and then followed by lashing out at the Newcastle striker.
Speaking on ESPN FC after Arsenal’s win, Gabriel’s incident with Woltemade was discussed, with presenter Alejandro Moreno sharing his opinion that the result was unfair.
“It’s unfair that Gabriel ends up scoring the game-winning goal, when you can argue that perhaps he should not have been on the field,” Moreno began.
“He was upset that Woltemade had scored on him, and right off the kickoff, he went and gave the forearm kind of fist shove to the face of Woltemade, and nothing happened.
“There’s a lot of finger-pointing and nothing happened, but he went straight at Woltemade with the ball being nowhere near in play or near them.”
Moreno argued that Gabriel scoring the winner would’ve really rubbed salt into Newcastle’s wounds, insisting that the Brazil international was at risk of being sent off in the first half.
That being said, the presenter went on to admit that, despite Gabriel’s involvement being ‘unfair’, it didn’t mean anything once the final whistle had blown.
“Look, you want to talk about fairness, there’s no fairness in this game. Fairness doesn’t account for anything.”
Dermot Gallagher says Gabriel was ‘lucky’
Jarred Gillett was criticised for his role in overturning Viktor Gyokeres’ penalty, as the referee had his work cut out.
Gabriel has been told by various members of the media that he was fortunate not to have been sent off, with former referee Dermot Gallagher giving his opinion on the incident.
Speaking on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch, Gallagher said that the Arsenal defender was fortunate for two reasons.
“Gabriel is lucky he doesn’t actually strike Woltemade properly,” Gallagher said.
“Where he is lucky is the referee hasn’t seen it. It’s gone to VAR, and they don’t think it’s a red card. I don’t think it’s a red card.
“The referee has seen something has happened, and what he does well is he calms them down and takes the sting out of the incident.”
What could’ve been a horror show for the defender in several instances was instead a fixture to cherish, as Gabriel won the game and took home the man of the match trophy.
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