I couldn't believe it when I heard that Gabriel had been given a yellow card for scuffing up the penalty spot. It's poetic justice I suppose that within a couple of minutes, he'd put himself into a position where he did a body check on Jesus and got a 2nd yellow. There were so many talking points in that match and - again - VAR went in our favour. But, I felt that everything else should be put aside to talk about the scuffing of the penalty spot.
I've been watching football since the 60's. I've never seen this done in the English game before, and I can only recall 1 or 2 incidences when it's been seen on foreign soil. Football has many pieces of gamesmanship in many matches, but, I feel that this needs an immediate response from the powers that be - and a word from Arteta/Arsenal perhaps, condemning this activity (forgive me if someone from Arsenal has already done this; I haven't heard anything along those lines). Also, did someone say on TV today that Ramsdale had been guilty of it too at some stage? It is cheating and, if not properly nipped in the bud, it'll start happening everywhere.
Anyway, I'm not calling for any extra punishment for Gabriel as he got his just desserts - though, if he had done that bodycheck in front of some European ref''s, he might have got a straight red. I'm just putting it out there that the authorities should state that, anyone found to have damaged the pitch in this most ungentlemanly of ways should expect an immediate 3 match ban, imho.