Arsenal were awarded a penalty against West Ham. (Image: Sky Sports.)
The have explained why were awarded a second penalty in their action-packed first half against , which saw the Gunners lead 5-2 at the half-time break.
The visitors were up in arms after Gabriel hit the deck following a corner, claiming that Hammers goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski collided with the centre-back as they went in search of a fifth goal.
Referee Anthony Taylor took his time before pointing to the spot, after he was crowded by the players as Gabriel remained on the floor having headed the ball over the bar.
Video footage confirmed that Fabianski had been late to punch the ball clear and missed it completely, catching Gabriel in the face, with the Brazilian eventually able to get back to his feet.
The league’s match centre wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) to explain: “The referee’s call of penalty for a reckless challenge by Fabianski on Gabriel was checked and confirmed by VAR.”
stepped up and just about found the back of the net, with Fabianski getting a hand to his spot-kick, crushing West Ham’s hopes of an unlikely comeback in a first half that had just about everything.
Bukayo Saka celebrating his successful penalty. (Image: Getty)
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“‘s players are adamant it is a penalty… he has knocked him out with his left fist,” icon said of the incident while on commentary for .
After Saka dispatched his effort, Neville added: “It was not a great penalty – he (Fabianski) gets there and should save it.”
The winger was the star of the show inside the London Stadium, having set up Gabriel after 10 minutes to score from yet another well-rehearsed corner.
He then provided an assist for Leandro Trossard, having played a smart one-two with on the edge of the box before squaring it to the Belgian in acres of space to score.
Saka was tripped inside the penalty area by Lucas Paqueta all inside a busy first 45 minutes, but handed the ball to his captain to score their first spot-kick of the evening.
Just two minutes later latched onto Leandro Trossard’s ball over the top of the West Ham defence to finish before Fabianski, with the match at risk of turning into a rout.
However, Aaron Wan-Bissaka got his second goal in two matches and Emerson struck a fine free-kick to stop the rot, only for Saka to hit back from the spot with ‘s fifth goal and the match’s seventh of the day.