Sunday 26 November 2017 17:45, UK
Sean Dyche admitted his frustration with Arsenal's late penalty against Burnley, saying he thought it was "highly unlikely it wasn't going to be given".
For the third game in a row against the Gunners, the Clarets were beaten by an injury-time winner, with Alexis Sanchez scoring from the spot after James Tarkowski was penalised for a push on Aaron Ramsey.
Burnley boss Dyche was slightly cryptic when asked about the penalty, but suggested referee Lee Mason was always going to give it to the visitors.
"I thought it was highly unlikely the penalty wasn't going to get given, at that stage, I think you can all make your conclusions from that, working backwards," he said.
"It's a tough one, it probably is a penalty, but my point is it was never not going to be given on today's performance, I can assure you.
"When the ball is four feet over his head, that's the hardest part, but I need to make it clear, you lay your hands on someone, he goes down - not in a cheating way, because he was nudged - they're tough calls. But at that stage of the game, you have to be 100%, which I presume the referee was.
"Look, it's a tough job the referees have, there's no point me saying too much about it, it's not going to change today. But there were some frustrations with some of the moments today.
"To be honest it was highly unlikely it was not going to get given on a day like today."
Up until the late penalty, the hosts had defended well and restricted Arsenal to few clear opportunities, and Dyche said he was pleased with the performance.
"It was difficult because it was a very good performance from us, particularly in the first half, to play against a side like them, keep the ball, probe, have them on the back foot at times and create chances without our keeper having much to do, was very pleasing.
"They had a good first 15 minutes of the second half and then we grew back into the game. Overall the disappointment is with the performance, not the outcome.
"I take pride in the play. They are a fine side. We know they are a very technical side, to limit them to a few chances is very pleasing. So many parts of our performance were pleasing, it's hard to define sometimes how you don't get something from a game but we didn't today.
"The players are frustrated by many things in the game that were out of our control."
