Mixed emotions for Andre

The boyhood Gunners’ fan looked to have snatched a point for the Clarets when beating Petr Cech from the spot in the fifth minute of time added on after Shkodran Mustafi had tripped Ashley Barnes.

However, the 25-year-old’s elation flicked to disappointment in a matter of minutes as referee Jon Moss pointed to the spot at the other end which allowed Alexis Sanchez to secure victory with the last kick of the game.

After scoring his sixth goal of the season in the Premier League, Gray said: “It is sickening. The boys were really down in the dressing room. I think everyone who has watched it on TV will understand.

“I thought we definitely deserved a point and when they went to 10 (following the dismissal of Granit Xhaka) we might have been able to nick it.”

Having ticked one of his goals off his bucket list, he added: “To score was a great feeling. I had a few other chances, we created a few but the final ball wasn’t the best today.

“I didn’t even think about it. It was last minute so I had to keep my head and not think about what was going on around me and all the fans. I made my mind up early to go down the middle.

“I wanted to take it straight away. It’s a big penalty in the last minute.”

The home side’s late winner drew incredible parallels to the heartbreak suffered at Turf Moor earlier in the season.

Laurent Koscielny was the man at the centre of the controversy back in October and the Frenchman was in the thick of it again when winning a penalty from an offside position.

“A big decision has gone against us and we’ve come away with nothing,” said Gray. “It happens.

“Hopefully we’ll get one our side towards the end of the season. We can’t complain, we’ve just to get on with it.

“There’s still a long way to go, but not many teams are going to come here and give Arsenal a game like we did so we have to take the positives.”

It’s not the first time that the Clarets have fallen on the wrong side of a contentious refereeing decision this term and Gray is confident that his team-mates will, as always, respond in a professional manner.

That’s what we’re best at,” he said. “We don’t rest on our laurels and we’ll be back in, we’ll dust ourselves down and get on with it.”