Mikel Arteta Reacts Angrily After Arsenal Were Denied Two Penalties In Draw Against Newcastle.

Mikel Arteta was left furious following Arsenal's goalless draw over Newcastle United in the Premier League on Tuesday night.

The Gunners manager was a frustrated man, as he felt that his team should have been awarded at least two spot kicks as they failed to breach the Magpies’ backline in a tensed  0-0 affair at the frenzied Emirates Stadium atmosphere.

The first was a shirt tug from Dan Burn on Gabriel Magalhaes, after Martin Odegaard floated a free kick into the box, Burn, who had lost his man after some clever blocking by Xhaka, yanked Gabriel 's shirt halfway off his shoulder preventing him from getting to the ball.

While the second was after Granit Xhaka 's cross did hit the hand of Jacob Murphy late in the game, but it was from such close range that it would have been extremely harsh to give it as a penalty.

This perhaps led to a frustrated Arteta exchanging heated words with Newcastle boss Eddie Howe over the incident on the touchline.

The Magpies defended extremely well to hold out for a point against leaders Arsenal who were denied the chance to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table to 10 points. 

Mikel Arteta further hit out at the match officials, and went on to label both penalty decisions that went against Arsenal on the night as "scandalous". 

"We had so many situations in and around the box and then we had two scandalous penalties.

"They are two penalties, it’s very simple. I’m talking about what I’ve seen, now, and it’s two scandalous penalties."

Arteta also praised his sides performance after earning a point in the Newcastle game but says they need to do better;

"I'm really proud. The way we played, the way we dominated the game against a really good side. The approach that we had from the beginning. 

"We were really chasing it, we were really wanted the win 100 per cent. You could see that the team was putting everything in to take the three points. We lacked that spark in the final third and we lacked the big decisions to find the opening to find the right moment an extra pass and a little bit of finishing quality to do better."

Arsenal are now eight points clear of Manchester City, who can close the gap to five points with a victory at Chelsea on Thursday night.

Meanwhile, Newcastle remain third ahead of Man United on goal difference despite the Red Devil's trashing Bournemouth 3-0 at Old Trafford. Though Erik ten Hag's men still has an outstanding game in hand.

Arsenal are back in action on Monday January 9 when they face Oxford in the FA Cup third round.

Arsenal's next seven PL games:

Tottenham (A) - January 15

Manchester United (H) - January 22

Everton (A) - February 4

Brentford (H) - February 11

Manchester City (H) - February 15

Aston Villa (A) - February 18

Leicester City (A) - February 25.