Leicester boss Steve Cooper slams two controversies that benefitted 'lucky' Arsenal

Leicester boss Steve Cooper laid the blame for his side's gut-wrenching defeat to Arsenal squarely at the door of referee Sam Barrott.

The Foxes travelled to the title challening Gunners on Saturday as they searched for the first win of the season. But it was a difficult start for the visitors, who managed just one touch in the Arsenal area before the break.

To make matters worse, Gabriel Martinelli gave the dominant Gunners a deserved first-half lead 20 minutes in when he steered home Jurrien Timber's cross. The winger then provided the key pass for his side's second, converted by Leandro Trossard, on the stroke of half-time.

Remarkably, James Justin scored twice after half-time to level things up. But a stoppage time own-goal from Wilfred Ndidi and Kai Havertz's late strike left Leicester with nothing to take home for their efforts, and Cooper fuming at the officials.

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"It was disappointing with the way we concede the goals because they are typical Arsenal goals with the cut-backs, we've done a lot of work trying to deal with that. I don't want to make the headlines around referees," he told Match of the Day.

"I'm trying to take responsibility for a team trying to do better in the Premier League but it's a clear foul on Jamie Vardy for the first goal and [Riccardo Calafiori] has to get sent off for a second yellow but there's so much more we could say, the whole game knows but I'm not going down that road today."

Leicester were left indebted to goalkeeper Mads Hermansen. Still, Cooper insisted it was a tough result to take given the position his side were in entering injury time as he claimed luck deserted the Foxes.

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"Tough one to take to be fair. Proud of the second half performance particularly. If it's a team that's not together, they can really go under after the first-half but it was great to score as early as we did in the second half and then go to 2-2," he added.

"You know you are going to suffer here at time against a really good time like Arsenal at the Emirates but I felt like we were coping really well. To have that deflection for the third goal is just a bit of where our luck is but then the fourth goal is against the run of play.

"It's another loss and the results always write the narrative but there was so much to be positive about, particularly in the second half and we've got to try and keep going keep capitalising on what is going okay and just improve.

"We're really happy with Mads, he's a talented young goalkeeper and he is on the right path. He didn't deserve to concede that third goal with the deflection but it can happen unfortunately. He didn't deserve to concede a goal like that, neither did the rest of the guys.

"You have to stand up, you have to keep believing in what you are doing. These are the demands of the Premier League. We fell on the wrong side today."

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