Arsenal cruised to victory against Crystal Palace in a 5-1 win at Selhurst Park.
Gabriel Jesus starred again as Arsenal beat Palace comfortably away from home, following on from the midweek victory over the Eagles.
The fixture was somewhat overshadowed by Bukayo Saka’s hamstring injury, which saw the winger leave Selhurst on crutches.
Mikel Arteta shared his concern over Saka’s injury, but the forward wasn’t the only player to feel some discomfort during the contest.
Why Nathaniel Clyne wasn’t sent off against Arsenal
Returning from injury to come on as a substitute in south London was Riccardo Calafiori.
The defender came on in the 58th minute for Myles Lewis-Skelly, giving Arteta the opportunity to flex his depth in the position.
Calafiori had just returned from injury and having not seen the Italian in action for some time, Arsenal hearts were in mouths when the summer signing was tackled by Nathaniel Clyne.
Replays showed that the former Liverpool defender flew into Calafiori with his studs up, scraping the fullback’s ankle in a nasty challenge.
Simon Hooper showed Clyne a yellow card for the tackle, which was reviewed by VAR and surprisingly, no further action was taken.
During the game, the Premier League issued a statement regarding VAR’s decision not to upgrade the card, via the Premier League Match Centre account on X.
“The referee issued a yellow card to Clyne for a challenge on Calafiori. VAR checked for a potential red card and confirmed the referee’s call, deeming that the challenge was reckless and not serious foul play.”
As the tackle was regarded as reckless, a yellow card was considered the correct punishment but not everyone would agree.
Arsenal fans react to Clyne challenge on Riccardo Calafiori
As expected, fans rallied to X to react to both the challenge and the decision not to send the Englishman off.
“If he was an Arsenal player it would have been a straight Red, no questions asked,” an Arsenal fan said, while others agreed by forming other comparisons.
- Auba was sent off at that very ground for similar, but far less of an impact. Yes! That’s a Red.
- How on earth is this not a red card. How does a VAR officials look at this and just say, yellow card, let’s move on. Shambolic.
- Can’t wait to hear Dermot Gallagher explain how that wasn’t a Clyne red. Joke
Fortunately, Calafiori was fine to continue after the foul, which could have ended very differently for both the victim and the offender.
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