Martin Odegaard shouldn't have got a penalty for the early Ederson challenge in the Arsenal vs Man City game as Stuart Attwell was 'spot on' in not awarding the Gunners the decision.
This is the view of former referee Peter Walton who commented on the early incident that summed up the north Londoners' electric start against the current Premier League champions.
Arsenal came into this contest looking to maintain their four point buffer over West Ham in the current standings whilst also cutting the gap to Liverpool and Chelsea directly above ahead of their crunch clash at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.
And they got underway with this assignment in a successful manner with their bright start on New Year's Day that certainly caught an animated Pep Guardiola off guard.
Their fast start to the midday contest at the Emirates Stadium was summed up with an early penalty shout that could have gone either way but Atwell favoured the Cityzens on this specific occasion despite the contentious nature of the decision.
After being poked through on goal, the Norwegian tried to round Ederson from an acute angle before the Brazilian came flying in with his challenge which provoked a raucous reaction from the crowd who were begging for a penalty.
However, after some consultation with the VAR, it was decided that Man City's main shot stopper got part of the ball which meant that it wasn't a 'clear and obvious' error for the technology to overturn.
Even Martin Keown and Steve McManaman initially thought that the on field decision would be overturned but 'VAR protocols' were followed correctly, according to Walton.
"Well don't forget the Jarred Gillet has interpreted the VAR protocol spot on here," he explained on BT Sport in the aftermath of the incident that took place in the 8th minute.
"He needs to have clear evidence to overturn the on-field decision. In this instance the on-field decision was a corner kick.
"I mean we've looked at it half a dozen times and we can't come to a conclusive definition to that it was or wasn't a penalty kick and Jarred therefore has left it alone and gone with the on-field decision."
Despite the clear fury from Arsenal fans who thought the eventual decision was an injustice, it mattered for very little as young star Bukayo Saka netted midway through the first half in the 31st minute.
You can follow match coverage in football.london's live blog from the Arsenal vs Manchester City game here.
