Mikel Arteta reaction to Arsenal's draw at Everton, penalty decision: "It is never a penalty"

Mikel Arteta was not best pleased with the penalty decision which went against Arsenal in their 1-1 draw at Everton.

He also wasn't delighted with the way his much-changed Arsenal side played as they're now 11 points behind leaders Liverpool and could be 14 points behind with seven games to go.

Mikel Arteta reaction on penalty kick

Speaking to TNT Sports in the UK after the game, Arteta was adamant that there wasn't enough contact from Myles Lewis-Skelly on Jack Harrison for it to be a penalty kick early in the second half, and the foul started outside the box anyway.

"For me it is never a penalty," Arteta said.

Arteta said the following in his post-game press conference, citing Everton's Jake O'Brien grappling with Ben White and how the Irish defender should have been sent off.

"I've seen it 15 times, there's no way, in my opinion, that's a penalty," Arteta said. "Because if there is, then O'Brien has to be out and Everton has to play with 10 men, that's clear."

Arteta not happy with Arsenal performance

"Especially with the result, very unhappy," Arteta said. "Very tough place to come. A team that is very direct, very physical and if you don't deal with it constantly well you will never get any momentum. We went ahead to finally find more control and generate more chances. We didn't do that.

"The start of the second half was very poor, we gave the ball away and we were insecure with what we do and the decision of the penalty comes... You want to dominate the game and we didn't play the game you have to play, like you have to with many other teams in the Premier League."

"We did a lot of good things in the game. We managed to give minutes to a lot of players as well and rest some players. But we missed two points."

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