Everyone was making fun of Arteta for stacking up on defenders, but where are those people now? We might need three more if we’re going to play half of our matches down a man.
That was absolutely horrific from the ref. The player was clearing the ball from danger, not kicking it away to waste time. He kicked it just barely after the whistle, so I don’t think it was out of frustration.
What, you think Oliver is capable of making judgment calls? Intent only matters when it’s a City player in this fixture.
It was a ridiculous card but I would expect nothing less of EPL referees.
That’s a clear yellow in my opinion, how can you argue it’s not? If you’re on one yellow beforehand, you know as a player that you must be more careful, that’s the whole point of the two card system.
Edit: wait, the yellow was for kicking for the ball??
See, I’m loving that everyone is suddenly so adamant that a yellow is a yellow. Second yellows have ALWAYS been 10x harder to earn than the first, because of the consequence of getting one. Fuck, Rodri is famous for maybe getting one for his third or fourth card-worthy challenge and then becoming immune to them for the rest of the match.
But now, suddenly, a yellow is a yellow no matter what the game context. Referees seem to want to have their cake and eat it too: they want to be able to shrug and say “you gave me no choice” but also prevent VAR from intervening because the human element is important to refereeing.
I don’t think it would even be a soft yellow for that tackle. Trossard is clearly not going for the ball and is just charging straight into Silva’s back. It’s the exact sort of things my old hot heated teammates would do when they got angry and inevitably got sent off. You deserve it at that point.
? Trossard is challenging for the header, bumps Silva in the air. Foul, no problem. Yellow? Harsh. Second yellow? Extremely harsh.
Don’t talk to me about what anyone deserves. Where are Doku’s card for similarly delaying the restart or Haaland’s for violent play at the end?
He is not challenging for the header at all. He is clearly targeting Silva rather than the ball. I’ve seen 13 years old more skillfully challenge a header, Trossard achieved exactly what he tried to achieve. He just didn’t think he would be punished for it.
Don’t talk to me about what anyone deserves. Where are Doku’s card for similarly delaying the restart or Haaland’s for violent play at the end?
I didn’t ref the game so don’t ask me. Haaland should have been carded from the antics I’ve seen.
Edit: wait, the yellow was for kicking for the ball??
Yes
That actually seems to be somewhat contentious. At the time the commentators said it was for delaying the restart. Afterwards, pundits said that they’d heard it was for the challenge on Silva.
Putting Arsenal bias hat on I assume they’re just trying to figure out which reason will hold more water and get them in less trouble.
