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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

Cesc Fabregas' cryptic message amid Granit Xhaka gesture and VAR controversy during Arsenal draw

Arsenal's 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon served up a number of talking points.

There's the fact that the Gunners allowed a two-goal lead to slip once again this season, Wilfried Zaha showing what the north Londoners missed out on with another impressive display at the Emirates Stadium.

But the two incidents which many are still talking about both came in the second half.

Firstly, in quite surreal scenes club captain Granit Xhaka appeared to tell supporters to f*** of as he was booed whilst being substituted.

He also took off his shirt and stormed down the tunnel.

Then in the dying minutes Sokratis thought he had netted a dramatic winner only for his goal to be ruled out following a VAR check - although that decision did seem very harsh on the hosts.

And it would appear that Cesc Fabregas was keeping a close eye on how events unfolded at the stadium which he used to call home.

Taking to social media the Spaniard didn't say a word but reacted with the flushed face emoji.

Looking at the timestamp of the tweet it seems he was reacting to the VAR decision, but was he watching the game on delay and couldn't believe what he was seeing in regards to Xhaka?

In terms of the VAR decision, PGMOL issued a statement which was read out by Match of the Day 2 host Mark Chapman on the BBC programme on Sunday night.

"Right, let's deal with whether there was or there wasn't [a foul]," he said.

"We were told by the PGMOL that the VAR official made a subjective decision that [Calum] Chambers tripped [Luka] Milivojevic and affected his ability to clear the ball."

Meanwhile, Arsenal legend Ian Wright has told Xhaka to apologise for his actions.

"I don't like any player to get booed. It’s not the best time for any player," he said.

"This is the captain. Now I think they are frustrated with the fact he has not run off the pitch. I’ve seen him substituted before and he has bolted off the pitch.

Unai Emery says Granit Xhaka was wrong to swear at fans

"He’s goading the fans. We’re talking about fans that have watched him in the four years he has been there have a handful of good games and he’s treating the fans like that.

"He should apologise. That's the captain. He should have apologised already. That's the guy they have chosen as the captain, and that is not the case that is the end of it, but that's not a captain's behaviour."

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