Arsenal boss Unai Emery slams VAR decisions he believes cost his side victory against Crystal Palace

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Tony Mogan27 October 2019

Arsenal boss Unai Emery condemned the VAR decision that allowed Crystal Palace to fight back and rescue a 2-2 draw on an extraordinary afternoon at the Emirates.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos and David Luiz scored early in the first-half as the Gunners took a commanding early lead but Palace pulled one back from the penalty spot after a controversial VAR intervention.

Wilfried Zaha was judged to have dived by referee Martin Atkinson following a challenge from Calum Chambers but the video assistant referee overturned the decision, deeming enough contact was made to award to spot kick which was duly dispatched by Luka Milivojevic.

Emery hit out at the decision to award Palace a penalty – criticising a lack of consistency from the match referee and his assistants at Stockley Park.

AFP via Getty Images

"I didn't understand the referee and VAR reaction,” Emery told BBC Match of the Day. “Last week they didn't check VAR for a penalty for us but we respect that. Two weeks ago there is one penalty for Pepe against Bournemouth, they didn't check, okay. I don't understand.”

VAR also denied Arsenal a possible winner late on, chalking off Sokratis’ fine finish for a foul on James McArthur on Chambers.

"For me there is no confusion - it is not a good decision. We deserved to win, we had a good reaction after they equalised, we scored but then they didn't count it.

"We didn't concede many chances apart from the penalty to score. Our reaction was very good, also the supporters help us in the last minutes to score the third goal and win the match but this doesn't happen."

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