Arsenal penalty U-turn explained as ref reverses decision on Gyokeres foul vs Newcastle

The Premier League have issued an explanation on why an Arsenal penalty was overturned away at Newcastle on Sunday afternoon. Referee Jarred Gillett initially pointed to the spot after Viktor Gyokeres went down inside the box under contact from Nick Pope. But Gillett consulted the VAR monitor and after several minutes of deliberating, reversed his decision to award a spot-kick.

It was judged that goalkeeper Pope made contact with the ball before bringing the Swedish striker down. The Premier League Match Centre confirmed on X: "14' VAR OVERTURN: After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of penalty to Arsenal. Referee announcement: 'After review, the Newcastle goalkeeper plays the ball and there is no foul. The final decision is drop ball.'"

The incident occurred in the 14th minute when a poor backwards pass from Jacob Murphy invited Gyokeres in on goal. Pope came rushing off his line and appeared to bring the centre-forward down with his outstretched right leg.

Yet upon review, England international Pope first seemed to make contact with the ball despite felling Gyokeres and Gillett reversed his initial decision.

After Gillett announced to the crowd the decision to change his mind, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was shown laughing on the touchline, sarcastically clapping and shaking his head in disbelief.

And Gary Neville, on co-commentary for Sky Sports at St James' Park, said: "Pope came out and committed. Gyokeres was close to the goalkeeper and he just nipped it past him. It looked a penalty in real time.

"Pope will be the most relieved man in this stadium. I still think they should have had a penalty. If I'm an Arsenal fan I want the penalty. If I'm a Newcastle fan, I'm relieved."

Newcastle piled the pain on Arsenal by making it 1-0 in the 35th minute with Nick Woltemade heading in from Sandro Tonali's cross. The Gunners complained that the goal should be ruled out for a foul on Gabriel Magalhaes, with Woltemade briefly putting two hands on the back of the Brazilian.

But despite protests from the away team, VAR felt the German striker only made 'minimal contact' with the back of Gabriel and that the defender exaggerated the incident.

Though Arteta was again furious, Neville added: "There is nothing in that, that is not a foul. That's a really good header."