Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger reluctant to enter Danny Welbeck 'diving' debate after AC Milan penalty controversy

James Benge16 March 2018

Arsene Wenger returned to a familiar refrain after Arsenal’s 3-1 win over AC Milan, insisting he had not seen the controversial foul on Danny Welbeck that earned his side a first-half penalty.

Minutes after Hakan Calhanoglu had reignited a tie in which Milan had been trailing 2-0 with a superb swerving strike from 30 yards out to hand the visitors the lead on the night, Arsenal were level when Welbeck converted from the spot.

Whether he should have had the penalty has proven to be a matter of some debate. Though Milan full-back Ricardo Rodriguez looked to connect with Welbeck as they battled to claim a Henrikh Mkhitaryan pass, the Arsenal striker appeared to go down rather too willingly.

Former England striker Alan Shearer described it as a "blatant" attempt to con the referee; Wenger was reluctant to comment.

"I haven’t seen it again,” Wenger told Standard Sport. "Do you want to accuse the English players of being divers?

"There’s two things. Was it a penalty or not? I don’t know. The Italian players were not happy with it. I can understand that because I don’t really know what it was.

"After that Danny took the penalty in a convincing way. I will watch it again and give you my honest feeling about it.

"I will give him my honest feeling about it as well, don’t worry."

In Pictures | Arsenal vs AC Milan | 15/03/2018

1/34

Welbeck’s penalty evidently shook Milan, who saw three of their players booked in the minutes after Arsenal drew level.

Milan head coach Gennaro Gattuso refused to blame Welbeck for his side’s elimination, which he claimed had been effectively confirmed in the San Siro last week.

"I don’t want an alibi," Gattuso said. "In the same way that [Milan goalkeeper Gianluigi] Donnarumma made a mistake [for Arsenal’s second goal], or you can miss a penalty or a goal a referee can miss a penalty.

"[Welbeck] is a striker. He has to do what he does.

"We can’t use that as a reference for the entire English football. There’s a great deal of fair play in England.

"Of course tonight there was a lot at stake. Even myself when I was a player I was trying to take advantage of situations. I won’t judge these things."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in