Arsenal fans are furious at some of the refereeing decisions which have gone against them this season, and it has cost them points.
Many are frustrated at the lack of consistency in which decisions are awarded, and Mikel Arteta’s side have drawn twice from leading positions after seeing two players sent off.
Both Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard were red carded against Brighton and Manchester City for ‘delaying the restart,’ with Rice’s particularly controversial given that the ball simply bounced off his leg, whilst Brighton attacker Joao Pedro escaped punishment within the same game.
Trossard’s dismissal at the Etihad Stadium was a frustrating one as Arsenal could have won, but it was made even worse as it was pointed out that Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szobozslai got away with the same offence without being punished against Nottingham Forest.
PGMOL chief Howard Webb has given his verdict on both incidents, but Arsenal fans may not like what he says.
Howard Webb explains why Leandro Trossard was sent off for same offence as Dominik Szobozslai
Speaking on the Stick To Football Podcast, Webb was asked about Trossard’s dismissal, and the lack of consistency when it comes to punishing restart delays, but he claimed that the right decision was made in both Arsenal and Liverpool’s respective incidents.
“We asked them [referees] to try to identify situations that are clear and deliberate and impactful on the ability of the other team to restart the game,” Webb explained.
“For example, there was a comparison made a couple weeks ago between what Trossard did in the Man City vs Arsenal game, and what Szoboszlai did in the Liverpool Forest game.
“Well, they’re really incomparable in terms of the impact, because what happened on a free kick to Man City in an attacking area, in added time at the end of the first half, and Trossard kicked the ball away, preventing City from even being able to think about restarting the game quickly.
“I’m sure they would have wanted to, or at least have had the option to, and it was at 2-1 at the time to Arsenal.
“In the other one, Liverpool were 1-0 down at home to Forest, it’s in 90 plus four minutes, there’s an offside given or a foul given against Liverpool, Szobozslai in frustration kicks the ball across which wastes his own time.
“It would be crazy if we cautioned at that point, we would be cautioning him at that point for kicking the ball away when Forest said ‘thanks a lot.’ We’d be seen as being totally out of touch with the game in that situation, whereas the first one was impactful on City being able to restart the game.
“Because there were players there ready to restart in this situation – there are no Forest players there, they wouldn’t have restarted quickly anyway, yet you ask us to have some understanding of the game, so that made total sense to me.”
Is Howard Webb being unfair on Arsenal?
After Rice was sent off against Brighton, a lot of the narrative that developed was that referee Chris Kavanagh had to follow the ‘letter of the law’ despite the incredibly harsh decision.
The same verdict was given against Trossard, but Webb’s comments indicate that there is flexibility for referees to make balanced decisions based upon the context of incidents in the game.
Arsenal are the only club to have had players sent off for delaying restarts, yet when similar situations have come up with other teams, the referee has made balanced decisions rather than ones which completely change the flow of the game.
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