After getting a red card against Bournemouth, William Saliba became the third Arsenal player to be sent off this season.
Leandro Trossard sent a loose back pass that led to Evanilson being tackled by the French defender after 28 minutes.
In the beginning, Saliba was scheduled for the task. For an on-field review, though, Rob Jones was sent and changed it to a red.
“I mean, he has a long way to go,” Jamie Redknapp said on Sky Sports. And I thought, “William Saliba, you’re in trouble here” right away.
“He is off.” When he trusts our side to play that ball, as we can see, that trust side makes a big mistake.
“He can’t handle the ball.” It’s clear that Saliba is trying to squeeze the play, which is fine because that would be offside for anyone else.
“Now he gets that yard of extra space.” But when he plays that ball, things go crazy. Saliba grabs it. There’s no question about it—he’s one of the fastest defenders in the Premier League—he would have made it back in time. “But is it a foul, for sure?”
Theo Walcott, a former winger for Arsenal, said, “I also think that when you look at this situation, as a professional footballer now, and they’re clean through on goal, it’s a clear chance to score.”
“I believe the decision was probably the right one because now we’ll be judging the players’ speed.”
This is the third time in Arsenal’s first eight games this season that they have been down to 10 players because of Saliba’s red card.
Declan Rice was sent off for a second bookable offense after slowing the start of the game at home against Brighton. It was the Gunners’ first red card of the season.
Mikel Arteta’s team was ahead 1-0 thanks to Kai Havertz, but Joao Pedro scored for the Seagulls to tie the game at 1.
Arsenal was also down to 10 players when Leandro Trossard was controversially sent off for the same reason against Manchester City. John Stones scored a last-second goal to tie the game at 2-2.
