‘Baffled’… Chris Sutton left confused after what he saw happen in first-half of Arsenal vs Burnley

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Chris Sutton has shared what he noticed one Arsenal coach do at half-time against Burnley on Saturday, as he admitted that the referee’s performance at Turf Moor left him somewhat baffled.

Arsenal dismantled the Clarets, with Mikel Arteta‘s side winning 5-0 – to go alongside their 6-0 victory against West Ham the previous week.

But perhaps the margin of victory against Vincent Kompany’s side could have been even greater.

Chris Sutton baffled Arsenal weren’t awarded more penalties against Burnley

Burnley’s defending was calamitous at times, as shown by Kai Havertz’s goal where they appeared to try and play offside from a throw-in. But Chris Sutton believes that the quality of their defending should have actually landed them in even more trouble.

Speaking on The Monday Night Club, Sutton insisted that Arsenal could have been awarded more than the one spot-kick they did actually get.

“There was a couple of occasions where they were not even facing the ball. Andouni was just grappling,” he said.

“One of the Arsenal coaches coming out for half time had a word with the referee because I was slightly baffled that there wasn’t a penalty or two given. That will be something that Mikel Arteta will keep in the ear of the referee with that.”

Mikel Arteta will fear decisions coming back to haunt Gunners

Arsenal will argue that they simply want consistency. If defenders are going to be allowed to wrestle opponents, then they need to know that so they can deal with the corners and free-kicks that way too.

But any football fan knows now that what is a penalty one week in the eyes of one referee is not a penalty the next under a different official.

Thankfully for the Gunners, the decision did not negatively impact them against Burnley. They were on a different level to Kompany’s side, who look set to be back in the Championship next year.

But with so little separating the top three right now, Arsenal will be wary of the inconsistency amongst officials coming back to haunt them at some stage.