Arsene Wenger: FA's Gabriel decision repairs five per cent of the damage done to Arsenal

Gab decision no gift: Wenger is still unhappy about the Chelsea match
Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images
James Benge23 September 2015

Arsene Wenger welcomed the FA’s decision to overturn Gabriel’s ban but warned it did not repair the damage of their loss to Chelsea.

Mike Dean dismissed the Brazilian defender for kicking out at Diego Costa during Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Arsenal but on Tuesday the governing body announced it would reverse Gabriel’s three game ban.

It is understood that video evidence which showed the defender made no contact with his opponent convinced the FA to overturn the ban, whilst handing Costa a three match ban for violent conduct relating to his battling with Laurent Koscielny.

Wenger revealed he is still angry about referee Dean’s performance four days after the game.

The Arsenal manager said: "It just shows that they decided after the game what should have happened during the game. They repair five per cent of the damage which has been done to us, instead of us playing 11 against 10, we played 10 against 11.

"I have watched the game again, and it is better I don't talk too much because there are some things that were really surprising in this game, some incidents were really handled very lightly and not seriously, and it is better I don't talk too much because I am still angry about it.

"One or two situations in the game are very difficult to understand when you watch it again."

Arsenal’s disappointing week ended on the most surprising of high-notes as Mathieu Flamini scored twice to secure victory over Tottenham. Wenger admitted that the midfielder’s recent absence from the first team had fired him up to impress when given the chance in the derby.

Ian Walton/Getty Images

He said: "You do not expect Mathieu Flamini to score two goals but he was frustrated for a long time and he went for it.

"He is a fighter, Mathieu, and a winner as well. I told him at the start of the season it might be difficult for him to be a starter, but he decided to stay and fight.

"Overall we responded well mentally and physically to the challenge we faced and it was a convincing performance."

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