Matteo Guendouzi will miss Arsenal’s game against Liverpool this weekend despite confusion over the suspension rule changes in the Carabao Cup.
My first reaction when Matteo Guendouzi was sent off against Blackpool was he would be out for the game against Jurgen Klopp’s men on Saturday.
I had no sooner tweeted that he would miss the game against Liverpool when a few journalists started to tweet that he would NOT be suspended for that game and would, instead, be out for the next round of the Carabao Cup which just so happens to be against Tottenham.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuzYBQfqXu0
There had been a rule change over the summer I’d apparently missed. Red cards received in the EFL Cup would mean a suspension for the next round of that competition rather than the next domestic fixture, they were saying.
But, at the press conference after the game, Unai Emery was asked about the upcoming suspension for Guendouzi and the Arsenal coach replied that he would prepare for the Liverpool game without him.
“That is football,” Emery replied when asked about Guendouzi’s harsh red card and him missing the Liverpool game. “When you are playing, when you are on the pitch, you can have things positive or negative. Like an injury, a red card or 90 minutes of hard work. With the red card, it’s like that. It’s football.
“We have a lot of players looking to play and to take this responsibility to show their performance, their quality for the team and I am going to prepare with other players and thinking that we can also have a performance for a big match on Saturday.”
So what is going on?
There WAS a rule change regarding suspensions in the Carabao Cup over the summer but it does not involve red cards.
Yellow cards picked up in the tournament will not count towards a Premier League suspension (at the 5-card, 10-card mark etc). Red cards picked up in the Carabao Cup will still transfer across all domestic competitions.
In short, Guendouzi will miss the game against Liverpool after David Coote sent off his 14th player in just a little over two seasons.
Coote made it 15 before the end of the game when he sent off Blackpool’s Paudie O’Connor for his scissor challenge on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
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