Premier League makes decision on Erling Haaland's punishment for Gabriel incident after reviewing VAR footage

The Premier League has made a final decision on whether Erling Haaland will be penalized for an incident involving Gabriel Magalhaes during the 2-2 draw between Manchester City and Arsenal.

The incident occurred seconds after John Stones equalised in the 98th minute to rescue City a point at the Etihad Stadium.

After retrieving the ball from the net, Haaland then threw it past the back of Gabriel's head before catching it again.

Only seconds after the restart, the Norwegian collided with Thomas Partey, which led to a mass confrontation between the two groups of players.

None of the incidents were penalized by the referee, although only the incident involving Gabriel was not penalized at the time.

The Premier League then decided to examine the footage of the Gabriel incident to determine whether any subsequent action was necessary.

Since referee Michael Oliver did not notice the incident on the pitch, the Premier League could decide to ban or caution Haaland for the incident.

If the incident had been discovered and a penalty imposed on the field, there would have been no investigation.

However, according to Jack Gaughan of the Telegraph, they concluded that the footage did not justify any subsequent action, so Haaland got off scot-free.

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Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey had claimed that the Norwegian was “very lucky” that the incident was not noticed by the referee or the VAR.

He told The Sun: “You could say it is violent behaviour because it is like he is throwing an object at someone's head. It is like he is hitting someone on the head with his fist.”

“So he can count himself lucky that Michael Oliver didn't see it and the video referee didn't notice it either. It could be interpreted as violent behavior.”