William Saliba was given his marching orders in the first half as Arsenal took on Bournemouth in a Premier League clash on Saturday evening.
Arsenal struggled to hit their stride throughout the first half against Bournemouth, and things got much worse for Mikel Arteta’s side with 30 minutes on the clock as William Saliba was shown a red card.
The French centre-back was initially booked for a tug on Evanilson, as the Bournemouth striker looked set to latch onto the ball with only David Raya to beat.
However, after a VAR review, the booking was cancelled out and the 23-year-old was shown a straight red card instead.
This is the third time already this season in the Premier League that the Gunners have been reduced to ten men, as Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard were previously dismissed against Brighton and Manchester City, respectively.
A former Premier League referee agreed with Rice’s dismissal, before Trossard was sent off for the same offence of delaying a restart. Arteta can have few complaints about Saliba’s sending off too.
Why was William Saliba sent off vs Bournemouth?
Saliba was sent for an early bath for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity.
This was confirmed by the Premier League Match Centre X account, which stated: “The referee gave Saliba a yellow card for a challenge on Evanilson. The VAR deemed that Saliba denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and recommended an on-field review. The referee then upgraded the yellow to a red card.”
Sky Sports (19/10/2024, 18:26) shared the four considerations that are taken into account when it comes to this offence: distance between the offence and the goal; general direction of the play; likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball; location and number of defenders.
It was ultimately decided, upon review, that Saliba had prevented Evanilson from having an opportunity to score.
What Arsenal fans did after William Saliba red card
As Saliba marched from the pitch, he was given supportive and consoling pats by a number of his teammates.
Soon after he had departed, the travelling Arsenal supporters could be heard loudly singing his name in the chant about Saliba that has become popular amongst the North London club’s supporters.
Arteta will now have to find a way of coping without Saliba when his side take on Liverpool next time out in the Premier League.
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