Mikel Arteta and Gabriel Martinelli fume at Christian Norgaard scissor tackle: ‘He could have broken my leg’

Gabriel Martinelli felt his leg could have been broken after Brentford captain Christian Norgaard escaped a sending off for a scissor tackle in their draw with Arsenal.

Norgaard hacked the Arsenal winger to the ground in the first half, which evoked a reaction from both the Emirates crowd and the touchline, with Mikel Arteta also furious with the decision to only caution the midfielder with a yellow.

VAR chose not to upgrade the decision after review despite strong appeals from Arteta to fourth official Simon Hooper.

"I didn't see that again but in the moment if my foot was on the floor he could break my leg," Martinelli told Sky Sports.

"He [Norgaard] said he didn't mean it. I believe him but still he could have broke my leg. For me it was red. I need to see it again to be sure. But for me it was nasty."

Arsenal went into the clash against Brentford desperate to not suffer any injury concerns ahead of their trip to the Spanish capital for their Champions League quarter-final second leg against Real Madrid.

But with Norgaard’s challenge seen as a potential leg-breaker by Martinelli, the Arsenal bench were understandably incandescent with the decision not to send him for an early bath.

"My reaction says everything," Arteta said, wary not to get into trouble by calling into question the referees.

Meanwhile, Brentford boss Thomas Frank added: "That's his opinion. I thought it was a strong yellow."

Martinelli luckily came out of the challenge relatively unscathed, but it was anything but all smiles for Arsenal as they were held to a 1-1 draw by the Bees.

Thomas Partey opened the scoring for Arsenal after 61 minutes but Brentford responded through Yoane Wissa 13 minutes later.

The draw means Liverpool will extend their lead to 13 points if they beat West Ham at Anfield on Sunday.