Slavia Prague accused Arsenal of time-wasting during their 3-0 defeat in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.
Mikel Arteta’s side made it four wins from four games in the Champions League with Bukayo Saka opening the scoring from the penalty spot before Mikel Merino netted twice in the second half.
Arsenal also registered their eighth clean sheet in a row, equalling a club record set in 1903.
However, Slavia captain Lukas Provod believes Arsenal were allowed to run down the clock in the second half.
‘Arsenal prepare for set-pieces for a long time, we knew that,’ Provod said.
Get personalised updates on Arsenal everyday
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link we’ll send you so we can get football news tailored to you.
‘When they were leading, they didn’t rush anywhere, the referee didn’t rush them. I guess that’s a compliment for us too.’
Slavia were also unhappy with Azerbaijani referee Aliyar Aghayev over his decision to award a penalty after Gabriel Magalhaes’ flick hit Provod’s hand.
‘I was in charge of Gabriel, which is a tough one, so I was 100 per cent focused on defending him,’ Provod said.
‘The ball went from his head to my head and then into my hand. I prayed that VAR wouldn’t rule it out, which rarely happens. I don’t know exactly what the rule is when the ball goes from my head to my hand. Unfortunately, it was a penalty.’
‘In the first situation, he [the referee] told me that it went from Gabriel’s head to my hand. Which wasn’t true.’
Slavia head coach, Jindrich Trpisovsky, added: ‘The referee told us that it was a hand above the head, Provi said that he first hit the ball with his head and it went into his hand, which would have been a violation, but this does not apply when the hand is above the shoulder.’
Despite his complaints over Arsenal’s time-wasting, Provod was full of praise for Arteta’s side.
‘They are one of the best, if not the best team in the world,’ Provod said.
‘They have a lot of quality, we see it in the Premier League, how they decide games.
‘We didn’t deal with it badly, the result is cruel for us. They didn’t create that much. We were active, our DNA was there.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.