Daniel Ballard followed up two Man of the Match performances with a red card in his third appearance on loan at Blackpool on Tuesday.

It’s fair to say Arsenal loan centre-back Daniel Ballard is making some headlines in the early stages of his spell with Blackpool. After some impressive international call-ups and two Man of the Match awards in his first two loan appearances, he earned himself a straight red on Tuesday.

For the most part, things seemed to be going well again for Ballard. Despite Blackpool conceding a goal, the centre-back made eight clearances, two interceptions and won 10 of 15 aerial duels. He only gave away one free-kick too, but sadly, that one foul got him sent off.

The TV cameras only just caught the incident, so it’s hard to spot at normal speed. After heading the ball backwards and falling to the ground, Ballard quickly gets to his feet and goes up to challenge another aerial ball.

However, he leads with his elbow, and catches the Wimbledon man in the face. You can see the video below from 1:08:

It was another big setback in the match for Blackpool, after they picked up another red card earlier on. In the end, they were probably lucky to lose 1-0 with nine men. But for Ballard, it’s a real shame he’ll now miss the next few games through suspension.

These are the sorts of learning experiences you need to have on a loan spell, though. You make the mistake with Blackpool in League One but hopefully now know not to take that kind of risk with Arsenal in the Premier League.