Arsenal legend slams Thomas Tuchel and explains why Bayern Munich were denied a penalty

Martin Keown slammed Thomas Tuchel for throwing Glenn Nyberg ‘under the bus’ after Bayern Munich were denied a penalty in last night’s pulsating Champions League clash against Arsenal.

Bayern felt they were denied a clear penalty in the 66th minute of the breathless 2-2 draw at Emirates Stadium after Gunners defender Gabriel inexplicably picked up the ball following a David Raya goal kick.

The Swedish match official reportedly opted against awarding a spot-kick due the bizarre nature of the incident, with his on-field explanation branded ‘horrible’ by former Chelsea manager Tuchel.

‘The referee made a huge mistake,” said Tuchel. ‘I know it was a crazy situation. They put the ball down, he whistles and the defender takes the ball with his hands.

‘What makes us really angry is the explanation on the pitch. He told our players it was a ‘kid’s mistake’ and he won’t give a penalty for that in a Champions League quarter-final.

‘It’s a horrible, horrible explanation. Kid’s mistake, adult’s mistake, whatever – we feel angry because it was a huge decision against us.’

Former Arsenal defender Keown, took a dim view of Tuchel’s outburst and suggested he should not have gone public with Nyberg’s explanation.

‘He’s saying OK it’s a kiddies mistake maybe there was another one later in the game,’ said Keown.

‘He’s thrown the referee under a bus a little bit there. He’s gone to him and said he’s made a genuine mistake and I’m not sure the referee was expecting that to be made public.’

Keown did agree, however, that Arsenal were fortunate to have avoided being penalised on that occasions but suggested the referee may have been out of his depth after he also denied the Gunners a spot kick in the final second of the match when Bukayo Saka and Manuel Neuer collided.

He added: ‘You can’t defend the indefensible and the referee is maybe out of his depth because we thought he had a decent game but there’s key moments where both teams can look at.’

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, who offered no opinion on the Saka incident, rued a big chance missed by Ben White at 1-0 and defensive errors but remained upbeat about progressing to the last four.

‘We started the game really well, we were dominant, we played in the opponents’ half,” he said. ‘We generated some momentum, scored the first goal and then it’s a critical moment of the match, Ben White is in front of Neuer to make it 2-0 and we have to put the ball in the back of the net and it becomes a different moment.

‘And then in Champions League you cannot give anything to the opponent.
“We have given them two goals today and when you have this situation they are going to punish you.

‘In a certain way we are alive and we’ve done what we had to do when the game became very difficult for us but as well as understanding that, we have to step up the level in certain aspects of the game.

‘I sense the belief there, we are going to go to Munich and have the chance to win it and we’re going to be better in certain areas and that’s how we are going to prepare it.’