Diego Carlos escapes red card despite appearing to ELBOW Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah in Aston Villa’s 1-0 win…with referee and VAR deciding challenge was only worthy of a booking
- Diego Carlos was lucky not to receive a red card for elbowing Arsenal's Eddie Nketiah
- Aston Villa beat Arsenal 1-0 thanks to John McGinn's early goal at Villa Park
- It won't hurt Arsenal at all to have Arteta out of the picture Villa Park
Aston Villa's Diego Carlos was lucky to escape a potential red card after appearing to elbow Eddie Nketiah during the Villains' win over Arsenal.
John McGinn scored a seventh-minute winner as Aston Villa made it 15 home wins in a row in the victory over the Gunners.
A victory that puts Unai Emery's men within one point of their opponents in the top four of the Premier League.
However, they can count themselves lucky that they did not finish the match with ten men, after the off-the-ball incident involving the Brazilian defender.
Late in the second half, Nketiah tried to run behind the centre-back, but Carlos threw his elbow towards the England striker, causing him to fall to the ground.
Diego Carlos was lucky to escape a red card for an elbow on Arsenal's Eddie Nketiah
The Brazilian stayed on the pitch and was able to celebrate the club's 1-0 victory over the Gunners
The challenge was spotted by referee Jarred Gillett, but deemed the penalty as just a yellow card and booked Carlos and awarded the Gunners a free kick.
Surprisingly, VAR subsequently advised Gillett not to look at the incident again, amid a potential case for the card to be upgraded to a foul.
It was another bit of frustration on a difficult evening for Mikel Arteta's side, who felt they could have also been awarded a penalty after Gabriel Jesus was cleared in the penalty area by Douglas Luiz.
The Gunners were also ruled out of a late equalizer when VAR disallowed Kai Havertz's goal after it emerged that the German had been guilty of handball in the build-up to the goal.
John McGinn celebrates scoring the early winner to secure a record 15th straight home win
Arsenal's Kai Havertz (left) was adjudged to have handled the ball in the penalty area before scoring
Arteta's men squandered several other chances to level the tie but were unable to find a breakthrough as Villa clung to their club record 15th consecutive home win.
It caps a statement week for Emery's Villa, who have beaten both of last season's top two, following their victory over Manchester City in midweek.
The defeat sees Arsenal drop from top spot in the Premier League and be replaced by Liverpool, who recorded a late victory over Crystal Palace in Saturday's early kick-off.
