Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was understandably disappointed with the referee's performance in their English Premier League game against Everton, with the official letting go of a lot of hard fouls, while also neglecting to give what should have been a clear second yellow card for Darron Gibson, which would have resulted in a red.
The Gunners were frustrated by a physical Everton side 0-0, a result that keeps the London side in third, two points ahead of Chelsea and Tottenham, but having played a game more than Spurs and two more than the Blues. Everton remain four points behind Arsenal.
"My first answer is that we should have won the game," Wenger said when asked about the performance at the Emirates. "The second, it keeps us still in a strong position in the race for the top four.
"Basically, the game was very intense physically. I felt that in the first half the referee didn't deal at all well with the intimidating physical challenges, but that we responded well to the physicality.
"We had fantastic commitment. It was detrimental a little to the fluency of our game, but we kept going and had good concentration. The regret I have is that we had the chances to score.
"Maybe we used power instead of technique too much in our finishing. And, the second regret I have is that with the number of set-pieces we had at home, there has to be a goal.
"Apart from that, I can only congratulate the team for the spirit and commitment."
Gibson was extremely lucky to stay on the pitch just past the half-hour mark, when, already on a yellow for a foul on Theo Walcott, he body-checked the Arsenal forward to stop a counter-attack.
Referee Neil Swarbrick, for some reason decided to keep the card in his pocket, while brandishing a yellow for Steven Pienaar, minutes after, for the exact same foul, which incidentally was again on Walcott.
"Yes (he should have been sent off). I never speak to the referee," Wenger added. "I don't know why (he wasn't), honestly. He should have had a yellow card already before the first one."
Everton were pretty physical in their approach, particularly early on in the match, before Arsenal slowly found their rhythm to quell the challenge.
"That's part of the game," Wenger said. "We had to deal with that and the referee has to make the right decisions. Apart from that, it was a game of huge intensity, a fight for both teams.
"You have to respect the effort Everton put in. They decided to make it very physical for us to disturb our game and sometimes went a little bit over the edge, but the referee had to make the right decision. I don't blame Everton for that. 'Protecting' is a big word, but they have to make the right decisions."
Everton manager David Moyes was reasonably satisfied with his side's performance, but admitted the Toffees now needed to win every single remaining game to stand any chance of qualifying for the Champions League places.
"We probably need to win all our games to have any chance but the players are playing well, we've had a couple of really hard away games and we keep picking up points," he told Sky Sports.
"I thought it was a really good game, it was end to end, we played some good stuff and we had to defend well.
"It was never going to be easy for us but I'm not going to be too despondent with a point even though I wanted to win it.
"We got a little bit fortunate and there were a couple of bits of fantastic defending to make sure we didn't concede a goal.
"We didn't have as many chances as we would have liked in the second half, but any manager who comes here knows that you're not going to get loads of opportunities."
