Tony Pulis slams Alexis Sanchez for dive and fumes at Jay Rodriguez penalty appeal

Tony Pulis was left fuming with referee Robert Madley after West Brom were denied a "stonewall' penalty at Arsenal, and labelled Alexis Sanchez a "cheat".

West Brom were denied a clear penalty in the eighth minute of their 2-0 defeat by Arsenal on Monday Night Football when Shkodran Mustafi tripped Jay Rodriguez, only for Rodriguez to get himself up and hit the post.

Madley did not signal for advantage during the move, while Pulis also referenced an early free-kick awarded to Arsenal, where he believed Sanchez dived and should have been booked.

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When interviewed by Sky Sports after the match, Pulis could not hide his frustration, and even insisted the reason his side have not received a penalty in 39 Premier League games is because his players are not told to "roll around".

Pulis told Sky Sports: "I think everybody has seen what's happened today. I think if you want to make an example of something, Sanchez actually dives on the edge of the box for the first free-kick. And he should be booked for diving there, in my opinion.

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"Then you see the tackle in the box on Jay, the referee's got a great view, it's a stonewall penalty. The great thing is everybody has seen it, so they make their decisions. I don't have to talk about it and I don't want to talk about it.

"It's not only a foul, the player could be sent off as well," added Pulis, though current rules mean the triple punishment of such an incident no longer exists. "So it could be a penalty and playing against 10 men.

"Jake [Livermore] should score the rebound and we should score other goals, we had opportunities. The disappointing thing tonight is Sanchez dives for the first free-kick, not the one they score off, and he should be booked. That's cheating.

"Jay is honest, and doesn't get his reward for being honest. We haven't had a penalty at this football club for over a year. And none of my players are told to roll around.

"The public out there, and everybody in the studio would have seen the referee's performance, so let them decide what they think. They won't get fined for that."

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West Brom had other opportunities to score at the Emirates, but eventually succumbed to two Alexandre Lacazette goals.

Pulis said his side played well, but rued the missed chances early on.

"I thought we played really well, we've missed a lot of chances in the first half, the game got stretched in the second half and Arsenal can hurt you. We're disappointed.

"We've got to take those opportunities."

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