Overview

• Arsenal beat Newcastle 2-1 at St James’ Park with an 84th‑minute equaliser from Mikel Merino and a late winner from Gabriel Magalhaes.
• Earlier in the match, Gabriel made contact with Nick Woltemade’s face after kick-off and was neither penalised on the field nor by VAR.
• Ex-PGMOL chief Keith Hackett called the action a violent act and said VAR missed a clear and obvious error, adding it could be reviewed retrospectively if the incident was not seen by officials.
• Former referee Dermot Gallagher said it was not a red-card offence under VAR’s threshold and suggested a yellow would likely have been shown had the referee seen it.
• Woltemade told Sky Sports he felt an elbow but chose not to go down, and pundits argued that his reaction reduced the likelihood of VAR intervention.