Daniel Farke was adamant Norwich City were victims of rough justice in a battling League Cup 2-1 extra-time defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday night at the Emirates.

Nearly 9,000 City fans were on the verge of celebrating a famous win when teenage Arsenal substitute Eddie Nketiah scored in the 85th minute before wrapping up a hard-earned victory in extra-time.

Farke was in no doubt the Gunners should have been down to 10 men early in the second half when Mohamed Elneny escaped with a yellow card for hauling down Nelson Oliveira. James Husband was then sent tumbling inside the Arsenal box but referee Andy Madley waved away penalty appeals.

“Several Arsenal players have said to me, ‘Sorry to you, but it was a clear penalty,’ I don’t need to add anything else to that,” said Farke. “I am not a guy who always claims for decisions but in this situation it was obvious. It was a one against one situation to the goalkeeper. That is going to be 2-0 to us and the game is done and we are in the next round. Then he gets a red card.

“Obviously he should have seen a red card and then it is 10 versus 11 and Arsenal are not able to build this pressure on us. To accept this decision is really hard. Sometimes you have to accept mistakes.

“It might be the players or the opponents but on this occasion it was the referee. It is really annoying. I talk about how small things determine the game and this was not a small thing. It is hard to accept but that is what we have to do.”

Farke is convinced City will get their just rewards down the line after a brave effort at the Emirates.

“First of all I am very proud of my lads for this performance,” said Farke. Especially 48 hours after a high intensity derby win. The guys are really disappointed in the dressing room. We all had this feeling that we totally deserved to be in the next round.

“Sometimes you don’t earn what you totally deserve. We have to accept this. I don’t think we deserved to lose. We showed so much tactical discipline. We will take confidence from this.

“I was not able to replace a lot of lads from Ipswich. We were so close to reaching something extraordinary. When you don’t get what you deserve immediately you just have to keep working and in the end we will get our benefits. That is what I told the lads after the game. With this togetherness and attitude we will be able to celebrate.”

James Maddison set-up Murphy to open the scoring but the midfielder was forced off with a calf problem.

“I don’t think it is too bad,” said Farke. “We had to substitute him because he felt some pain in his calf. I hope it is nothing too serious because we need him for the league games. In the last weeks he was brilliant and he had so many fouls against him again in this game. He is so mature and he is handling the load. To play two intense games in 48 hours speaks volumes.”