Gary Neville’s sarcastic response to Mikel Arteta after Arsenal v Newcastle United controversy

Mikel Arteta slammed referee Andrew Madley’s “scandalous” penalty decisions during Arsenal’s goalless draw against Newcastle United.

Eddie Howe’s side ended the Gunners’ record of scoring in every Premier League game this season, as well as denying them an eighth straight home win.

Arteta was a frustrated figure at full-time by insisting his side were denied two second-half penalties.

The first was for a shirt tug on Gabriel by Dan Burn, while Arteta also wanted a spot-kick after Granit Xhaka’s cross hit Jacob Murphy’s hand.

“I’m really proud of the way we dominated the game and the approach we had from the beginning,” the Spaniard said. “We lacked a spark in the final third to find the right opening.

“We had a lot of situations in and around the box to do better. And then yeah, two scandalous penalties. Both of them. It’s not particular, it’s a penalty or not a penalty and both are penalties.”

Re-using the word scandalous, former Manchester United defender Gary Neville, on punditry duty with Sky Sports, shut down Arteta for believing Murphy’s handball was a penalty.

“I thought it would have been scandalous if it had been given,” Neville said. “If Arteta had lost a game via that he would be fuming. You cannot have your arms by your side when you slide in.

‘That is not penalty - you go in like that to block a cross, that is not penalty in a million years. He would have been livid had that been given against Ben White, [Takehiro] Tomiyasu or Oleksandr Zinchenko.”

Neville, however, did admit that Newcastle were lucky to escape a penalty for Burn’s shirt pull.

He added: “VAR officials with Howard Webb have been told to not get involved unless you have to. Arteta has a right to be annoyed at that one. Newcastle were very lucky there. I think they (Arsenal) have a right to feel aggrieved.”