Arsenal demand answers from Pro Ref after controversial penalty

Arteta furious despite victory

Arsenal are set to contact Pro Ref, the body in charge of refereeing in English football, to demand answers over a penalty decision in Saturday's Premier League match. The Gunners won the game 2-0 at the Stadium of Light, but manager Mikel Arteta was left extremely angry by the incident.

The referee, John Brooks, awarded Sunderland a penalty in the second half for an alleged foul by Ezri Konsa on Dan Ballard. Although David Raya made a brilliant save to stop Enzo Le Fee's penalty, Arteta was still furious with the decision.

Demanding answers from officials

Arsenal want to know why referee John Brooks gave the penalty and why the video assistant referee backed his decision. The Premier League Match Centre stated that the holding offence by Konsa was checked and confirmed by VAR, but Arteta was not satisfied with that explanation.

Arteta felt the foul was actually committed by Ballard. "I'm very worried and sad because this can never be a penalty," Arteta said after the game. He described the incident as a judo roll from the opponent and argued that Konsa did nothing wrong. Arteta added that he watched the replay 20 times and still could not understand why the penalty was given.

The Arsenal manager warned that such decisions can change the course of a season and cost a team the championship. He stressed that mistakes like this cannot happen at this level after all the hard work his team puts in.