Arsene Wenger has been left furious by the decision to award Watford a penalty during their 2-1 defeat to their London rivals, describing the decision as ‘scandalous’.

Arsenal were 1-0 up and looked comfortable in the game before the Hornets equalised through a Troy Deeney penalty – awarded controversially after referee Neil Swarbrick judged Hector Bellerin to have fouled Richarlison.

Tom Cleverley put the game to bed at the death, but it was the decision to award a penalty that enraged Wenger.

“I believe that we had many, many dangerous situations where we could have scored but didn’t. We had opportunities to score the second goal,” he said.

“The decision on the penalty is a bit ridiculous and then we panicked a bit for their second goal and in the end we stand with a defeat.”

“It is a scandalous decision, but what can we do about it? Nothing. We can talk and talk and talk. At the end of the day they scored.”

“We dropped our level in the second half, we played very well in the first half. Despite that, we had the chances to score two and three.”
[Quotes via Sky Sports]

The result leaves Arsenal 6th in the table on 13 points, 9 points off leaders Manchester City. It also means that Watford leap frog the Gunners in the table, with the Hornets now sitting 4th on 15 points.