Arsene Wenger defends Aaron Ramsey over controversial late penalty as Arsenal beat Burnley

The Arsenal manager insists Ramsey did not dive to win the decisive penalty in Arsenal's win at Turf Moor

Aaron Ramsey goes to ground under a challenge by James Tarkowski (Getty)

Arsene Wenger has defended Aaron Ramsey from accusations of making too much of a push by Burnley's James Tarkowski which saw Arsenal awarded a late penalty at Turf Moor.

Alexis Sanchez converted the spot-kick deep into added-on time to snatch a 1-0 victory and three points for the visitors.

Burnley were incensed by referee Lee Mason's decision and claimed Ramsey had gone to ground too easily, but the official would not hear their protests.

Wenger believed Mason was right to award the penalty and revealed that Ramsey had complained of a pain in his neck following the push.

“It looked a clear penalty. I'd have to watch again but there was one on Bellerin as well. I can understand why they were disappointed but from outside it looked a penalty.

“When you speak to him, he didn't throw himself on the ground. He said he wanted to go back and flick on the ball. He was pushed in the back, he has a problem in his neck from the push. He said it was a very strong push.”

Arsenal struggled to create clear-cut chances despite their dominance of possession and Wenger praised Burnley's approach in his post-match press conference.

“I believe in the first half very even, then sharper than us, took a while to get the pace, they were more decisive.

“Second half it was all us. They made some changes but we pushed ourselves higher up. We were a bit slow in the first half.

“They defended very well, well organised, clever intelligent and direct, when you play them you understand why they had 22 points.”