Mikel Arteta slams refereeing in Arsenal’s win over Crystal Palace

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has criticised the refereeing in his side’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Monday night after Takehiro Tomiyasu was sent off for two soft yellow cards and is concerned by the way time-wasting is being punished.

The Gunners controlled the contest for over an hour and had two excellent chances to open the scoring in the first half but Eddie Nketiah hit the post with the first and then dinked the ball over the bar from six yards out with the other.

The Gunners took a deserved lead from the penalty spot when Nketiah touched the ball past Sam Johnstone and was brought down, with skipper Martin Odegaard calmly slotting the ball into the bottom left corner.

Tomiyasu Sent Off

But the game changed in controversial fashion in the 67th minute when Tomiyasu was shown two yellow cards in the space of just a few minutes. The first was for time-wasting – though team-mate Kai Havertz seemed to be the bigger culprit during the incident – while the second initially appeared to be for a tug of Andre Ayew’s shirt, though replays suggested there was minimal, if any, contact.

Unfortunately for Arsenal, second yellow cards cannot be checked by VAR and Tomiyasu was given his marching orders with the north Londoners forced to defend with 10 men for the rest of the contest.

Arteta’s Frustration

Arteta clearly felt the officiating at Selhurst Park was rather heavy-handed and suggested the ‘new rules’ had been introduced on the fly and were different from what had been explained to teams before the season started.

Asked if understood why the first yellow card for Tomiyasu was given, a clearly annoyed Arteta told Sky Sports bluntly: ‘I’m a really open person, I understand everything.’

Probed on how frustrating the application of the new time-wasting rules are, the Arsenal boss replied: ‘The new rules is one thing. The new rules that I don’t know where they are and they haven’t communicated, that’s something very different.

‘But we will adapt. Today we had to win it in this context and we’ve done it.’

Asked if referees will struggle to apply the rules consistently over the course of the season, Arteta added: ‘I don’t know. That’s something they have to do. It’s going to be very difficult for us I guarantee you. We’ll have to play with 10, or maybe with nine or with eight!

‘Because if depending on where we put the standards and the level, we can maybe play eight against eight. It can be very entertaining.’

Incorrect Information

In another interview with BBC Sport, Arteta had said he ‘did not know’ how long Tomiyasu had held onto the ball before being booked for time-wasting, but when he was incorrectly told it was 23 seconds he immediately corrected the reporter.

‘It wasn’t. I think it was eight seconds,’ said the Spaniard. ‘We might have to play with a stopwatch. It’s OK, we won the game, I’m happy. Today we had a difficult one, we overcame it and it will make us better.’

Conclusion

It’s clear that Mikel Arteta is not happy with how referees are applying the new time-wasting rules this season and believes that they need to be more consistent in their application of them. With Arsenal having to defend with 10 men for much of their win over Crystal Palace, it’s understandable why Arteta is so frustrated with how things are going.

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