Wenger sorry, but faces FA charge
Chelsea beat Hull City 2-0 on Sunday to go eight points ahead of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League.
Diego Costa, back in the side after missing last week’s win at Leicester, scored Chelsea’s first just before half-time while defender Gary Cahill added a second late in the game.
But all the drama took place in north London where Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger could face an FA charge after he was sent off and then clashed with fourth official Anthony Taylor in an astonishing finale to the Gunners’ 2-1 victory over Burnley.
Afterwards Wenger told the BBC: “I didn’t see any penalty from outside, but I should have shut up and I apologise, even if I was frustrated.”
Yet Wenger denied there was any physical altercation with Taylor. “It was not physical. I just thought I could stand in the tunnel,” he said. “Every week and every game is an unbelievable fight for everybody.
“We finally got the win, but of course it was very difficult for us. We couldn’t get the second goal, we played with 10 men and they played well as well.
“In the end, we got the three points we wanted.”
Burnley manager Sean Dyche was equally unhappy at the award of Arsenal’s decisive penalty when Ben Mee raised a foot at the advancing Gunners’ defender Laurent Koscielny.
Dyche claimed the Frenchman was offside.
“It’s a tough day for us in the end,” he said. “To lose a game in that fashion, with an offside not given, is tough, particularly when you come to tough places like this. We know how tough this division is but you need officials to make the right decisions and that is the shame today.”
Earlier Leicester City’s alarming slump continued with a 3-0 defeat at Southampton that left them just five points off the drop zone and firmly embroiled in a relegation fight.