The decision to send off Arsenal star William Saliba in the Gunners’ damaging 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth on Saturday was perhaps the most controversial moment of the Premier League weekend.
Saliba was initially shown a yellow card for bringing down Evanilson just beyond the halfway line, but his yellow was upgraded to red for denying him a clear scoring opportunity after referee Rob Jones was sent to the pitch monitor by VAR.
The Frenchman, who chased after a poor pass from team-mate Leandro Trossard, is the latest Arsenal player to be given his marching orders, with their discipline becoming an issue for manager Mikel Arteta.
The incident was dissected by Chris Sutton and Mike Keegan in the latest episode of It’s All Kicking Off! podcast.
Sutton and Keegan disagreed over the elimination as the Premier League winner also warned Gunners fans that their ‘sloppy’ start could cost them the title.
‘Look at the loss of points. Trossard was sent off at Manchester City when Arsenal were in front and while they were rightly praised for their back-line action, it was a two-point loss,” said Sutton.
‘Declan Rice in the earlier game, I think it was against Brighton, they were ahead, two points were scored. And at the weekend they drew against Bournemouth and Saliba was sent off, dropping points in that particular match.”