Fans are comparing Erling Haaland's offside call with Marcus Rashford's

The offside call involving Erling Haaland against Arsenal has been compared to Marcus Rashford's controversial role in Manchester United's equaliser against Manchester City.

Haaland thought he had won City a penalty at the Emirates after getting in behind following Kyle Walker's pass. Gabriel Magalhaes got the wrong side of the big Norwegian and tangled with him.

The initial foul from Gabriel was outside the area but continued into the box, leading to Anthony Taylor pointing to the spot and booking the Brazilian.

However, a VAR review showed that Haaland had actually strayed offside and so the decision, including the yellow card, was cancelled out completely.

Yet some City fans fumed over the call because Haaland did not touch the ball in the build-up. Only last month City were livid with the decision to award Bruno Fernandes' goal in the Manchester derby despite an offside Marcus Rashford chasing the ball until the very last second.

Pep Guardiola could not believe the goal stood upon a VAR review and said, "Rashford was offside and he "distracted our keeper and defenders".

And some supporters felt that it was a case of double standards.

One wrote: "Said exactly this in the ground to my lad last night. If the Rashford offside isn’t interfering with play how can the Haaland one be given? Unless of course, something untoward is at play here?

A second stated: "My son said the exact same last night, neither of them touched the ball, couldn’t be a clearer example of how we were robbed."

A third stated: "It's about consistency and decision making. About Rashford goal, they didn't apologize. They said he is not interfering with the play but in future decision can be interpreted differently."

A fourth opined: "The rules clearly state that as Haaland never touches the ball before he was fouled the foul comes before the offside!!!! What is the point of writing these rules when you clearly make it up as you go????"

A fifth said: So either it should have been a penalty because Haaland didn't touch the ball or, Haaland was offside because he attempted to play it.

A sixth tweeted: "If he's off then what about Rashford in the derby?"

However, ESPN's VAR and referee expert Dale Johnson cleared up the differences between the decisions and confirmed that unlike Rashford, Haaland was involved in direct contact with Gabriel.

He wrote: "Getting a lot of tweets saying 'how can Rashford be onside but Haaland off when neither of them touched the ball? What's the difference?' Simple. Haaland comes into contact with Gabriel. It's textbook "challenging an opponent." This, specifically, didn't happen with Rashford."

Haaland notched his 32nd goal of the season late on, following up strikes from Jack Grealish and Kevin De Bruyne in a statement win that took the champions back to the top of the league on goal difference.

Arsenal levelled through Bukayo Saka's penalty in the first half but after conceding twice in the second half, have now gone three games without a win in the league and need to respond against Aston Villa on Saturday.