Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish has called on the Football Association to investigate Robin van Persie’s elbow on Carlos Cuellar during his side’s FA Cup fourth round defeat on Sunday.

McLeish believes van Persie was fortunate to escape a red card for elbowing Spanish defender Cuellar as they challenged for a high ball in the 64th minute of Arsenal’s 3-2 win at the Emirates Stadium.

Referee Mike Jones took no action against van Persie at the time and McLeish would like the FA to watch the incident on video and decide whether the Dutch striker should be punished retrospectively.

“If it was an elbow in the face, yes I would like them to look at it,” former Aberdeen defender McLeish said.

“I don’t like to point the finger at players but it’s something you don’t like to see.

“I saw it in real time. I haven’t seen it again on television. It looked like he hit him in the face with his elbow. Cuellar is not someone to go down if he hasn’t been hurt.”

“You only have to look at the state of my nose to see what can happen when you get elbowed! It happened to me enough during my career.”

Van Persie had already scored twice from the penalty spot before his clash with Cuellar as Arsenal recovered from 2-0 down at halftime to seal a fifth round trip to Sunderland or Middlesbrough.

Van Persie’s double took the Dutch international to 120 career goals for Arsenal, level with Dennis Bergkamp, and he admitted it was a great honour to equal his compatriot’s total for the Gunners.

“To score 120 goals for Arsenal is a big honour,” van Persie said.

“Dennis Bergkamp is a big legend and I have massive respect of him, so to score as many goals as him at Arsenal is a great honour.”