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WENGER UNHAPPY WITH LINESMAN`S ADMISSION

ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger has launched a stinging attack on the assistant referee who admitted to seeing Stephane Henchoz handle Thierry Henry`s shot on the line but did not raise his flag.

Television replays from Saturday`s FA Cup final clearly showed Henchoz stop the Arsenal forward`s goal-bound effort with his arm, but referee Steve Dunn failed to see the incident - meaning the defender stayed on the field and The Gunners were denied a certain penalty.

Liverpool went on to win the game 2-1 and lift the FA Cup thanks to two late Michael Owen strikes which cancelled out Fredrik Ljungberg`s earlier opener for Arsenal.

Wenger was understandably unhappy after the game, and his mood was hardly improved when assistant Kevin Pike admitted to him that he witnessed the incident.

"I have seen the incident on TV and it was a penalty," the Frenchman complained. "And if that is the case there is no choice for the referee than to send the player off.

"The ref didn't see it but I spoke to the linesman after the game and he told me he saw it - but chose not to flag for the foul because it wasn't on purpose.

"It's the first time I've seen a handball on the line that wasn't on purpose.

"You couldn't say Liverpool deserved to win, as we dominated for most of the game.

"We had a lot of chances to finish the match before they scored but didn't take them and we were punished. I am very disappointed."

Henry was equally unhappy with the attitude of the officials, saying: "The referee just laughed at me when I said it was a penalty but I told him to look at it again on video and he will know he was wrong.

"Even Henchoz told me it was a handball. I spoke to him at the end and told him he was lucky as not only was it a penalty but also a red card.

"The game would have been very different if it had been 11 men against 10.

"I don't want to talk about the penalty too much as people will say I'm only looking for excuses.

"But it is very hard to accept losing a game like that. It is not so bad if you play badly and lose but for 80 minutes we played much better than Liverpool and it is still difficult to believe they have the cup."