Antonio Conte has laughed off Arsene Wenger’s claims that Marcos Alonso’s opening goal in Chelsea 3-1 win over Arsenal should’ve been disallowed.
The Spaniard opened the scoring for Chelsea after Diego Costa’s header was saved by Petr Cech – Alonso went for a follow up header of his own and succeeded in putting Chelsea ahead, taking out Arsenal right-back Hector Bellarin in the process.
Alonso and Bellarin were both shown on replays to have had eyes for the ball only – and upon further analysis most pundits agreed that it was not a foul, but under fire Arsenal boss Wenger does not agree.
The Arsenal manager was adamant the goal ‘100 per cent’ should not have stood – with Conte responding by claiming he was surprised by this, due to English football being renowned world wide for it’s physicality.
‘In England this is always goal,’ he said. ‘To hear this in England [that some people think it was a foul] I’m surprised. In Italy maybe.
‘I understand when that happens against you. We can see a lot of this situation in England.
‘In other countries maybe we can have a conversation, but here, it’s not right to talk about this.’
Despite what people may think of the first goal, Chelsea went on to score 2 more to all but end Arsenal’s title hopes, with the Gunners managing to pull one back – but by then the game, and to some, Arsenal’s hopes of a first Premier League title in 12 years, was long gone.
