Arsenal hope to find out today if their appeal against Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s three-match ban has been successful.
Aubameyang was sent off against Crystal Palace at the weekend after a Craig Pawson VAR review upgraded his initial yellow card to a red one. Watching the replay, there could be no argument it was a red card ‘tackle’.
Craig Pawson, you will remember, was the referee who failed to issue a second yellow to Jorginho against Chelsea over the festive period in Mikel Arteta’s first official game. The Brazilian then went on to win a dodgy freekick from which he scored Chelsea’s equaliser, turning the game.
I didn’t actually expect Arsenal to appeal this card, they rarely did under Wenger who just got on with things, but it seems our new regime is following the Spurs method and appealing everything.
I highly doubt it will be a successful appeal and if you want to know why, just consider if Wilfried Zaha had put that challenge in on an Arsenal man and the red card was overturned.
You’d be furious.
My concern here is that the FA will add another game for what could be considered a frivolous appeal, although it appears Arsenal are appealing the length of the ban rather than the card itself.
Still, we all know the rules and a red card for a challenge like Auba’s is a standard three match ban.
It is worth noting that the FA did not increase Son’s ban when Spurs appealed his red for two-footing Rudiger in the chest. But we aren’t Spurs, so who knows how it will go.
So Son breaks someone's leg and it's okay to appeal (and win!) but this is too far, even though there have been several similar tackles that went unpunished. It's a red card, it should always be a red card, but why should we sit down and suffer while others are spared? https://t.co/q6lGAJJCQ3
— Anita (@arsenaloFka) January 14, 2020
Mikel Arteta has already apologised for the tackle while Auba issued a statement that was meant to look like an apology but wasn’t really.
Arsenal will argue that the force of the tackle was not ‘excessive’ while using similar tackles that have gone to a VAR review that did not result in a red card. They will include a challenge by Liverpool’s Andy Robertson on Tottenham’s Japhet Tanganga at the weekend, to emphasise their point.