Cesc Fábregas has admitted that he was upset at half-time during Arsenal's 2-1 win over Everton but will not face disciplinary action over claims that he abused match officials.

Everton led 1-0 at half-time through Louis Saha but the striker had been in an offside position when the ball was played forward. David Moyes, the Everton manager, claimed after the match that Fábregas should have been shown a red card for his complaints to the officials, but the referee, Lee Mason, made no mention of the alleged incident in his post-match report.

Fábregas told the Arsenal website: "I have respect for all match officials. Their job is a very difficult one and their decisions are final.

"Yes, I was upset at half-time. So too were about 60,000 Arsenal supporters in the stadium. We were 1-0 down against a very good Everton side to a goal which we felt was offside. Of course I am going to be upset. Players from both sides were saying things as we came off the pitch, and this always happens in football.

"I'm passionate about this club and like all the players want to win every single match, so many things are said in the heat of the moment.

"Clearly the officials feel that nothing serious happened, as I understand the referee has not included anything in his match report. I just want to focus on our next match, which is another big challenge at Newcastle on Saturday."

Arsène Wenger later denied that Fábregas had even spoken to the officials, and the Football Association has now confirmed that it received no extraordinary incident report from Mason regarding any confrontation with Fábregas.

Fábregas, meanwhile, said the battling 2-1 victory proves Arsenal have the character needed to push Manchester United all the way in the race for the Premier League title.

Arsenal rallied after going behind to what looked an offside goal from Louis Saha, scoring twice in the space of five minutes during the second half.

The victory kept them five points behind Manchester United, who extended their unbeaten run this season to 24 league matches after a 3-1 win over Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Fábregas said: "We were not up for it at the start against Everton and we were very sloppy. We know that we could have paid for it, but fortunately the team stepped up.

"We realised that if we kept playing like that, we would be going nowhere. It is a very inspiring comeback and maybe we needed something like that to lift us and see that even with injuries and suspensions, we can still have a really strong squad.

"Now we have three days to recover for what will be a big game on Saturday [at Newcastle]."