In an era when breathing heavily on an opposition player can see a spot-kick awarded, there was never any doubt Barcelona would get a penalty when Frenkie de Jong hit the Camp Nou turf like a sack of potatoes last night.
After a trademark dart into the 18-yard box, Barca’s Dutch international had his heels clipped by Paris Saint-Germain’s back-tracking Layvin Kurzawa.
Accidental it may have been – but intent mattered not in the eyes of referee Bjorn Kuipers.
The contact was clear and, moments later, Lionel Messi smashed the ball into the roof of the net after PSG protestations came to naught.
And, with Arsenal still reeling from the controversial dismissal of David Luiz in the 2-1 defeat to Wolves a fortnight ago, Gunners fans were never going to let sleeping dogs lie.
Luiz was shown a straight red card for apparently tripping Willian Jose when Wolves’ Brazilian striker was through on goal.
Kurzawa, in contrast, escaped with a yellow – despite the fact he made far more contact with De Jong than in the incident that saw the Arsenal veteran sent for an early bath.
The two cases aren’t identical, of course.
Jose was about to pull the trigger and seemingly destined to score while De Jong found himself at a slightly awkward angle, his chances of finding a way past Keylor Navas minimal at best.
But for many Arsenal supporters this just was another example of double standards in a sport VAR was supposed to turn into a level playing field.
Here’s how some Arsenal fans responded to the decision on Twitter:
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