The Gabriel Martinelli red card was the15th under Mikel Arteta yet, once again, we are sitting here wondering why you never see red cards like that for anyone other teams.
I’m 46 and have been going to football matches, of all levels, for 40+ years.
Admittedly, in those early years, I wasn’t quite paying full attention, but I still can’t think of a single time I’ve seen a player sent off the way Gabriel Martinelli was against Wolves.
I have, however, seen plenty of players do a version of what he did – commit two fouls in quick succession – but I’ve only ever seen one yellow issued.
Until Thursday night.
Michael Oliver gave just a yellow card to Brighton player Davy Propper for these two successive challenges.#WOLARS #michaeloliver #PGMOL #arsena #PremierLeague pic.twitter.com/JZj6THeuFV
— Membooda (@memebooda) February 12, 2022
The International Football Association Board, who set the laws of football, seem to indicate that Michael Oliver was wrong to send Gabriel Martinelli off the way he did against Wolves.
https://twitter.com/bres84/status/1492082147695501345
Leaving aside that Gabriel Martinelli’s first foul caused a foul throw, that does not allow an advantage to be played, the reason you have never seen a player shown two yellow cards the way Martinelli was treated on Thursday night is because the laws seem to prohibit that from happening.
Yes, that’s right, another official has misapplied a law to punish Arsenal.
Yes, a throw-in is a dead ball situation so the ref can’t play an advantage. By allowing play the ref is saying the first foul didn’t occur. How can a professional ref not know this?
— S Marquez (@chicago_gooner) February 10, 2022
Gabriel Martinelli red card – right or wrong?
Back in 2020, IFAB tweeted to say, “If the referee plays advantage for an offence which interfered with or stopped a promising attack, the YC should not be issued.
“The law states that if 2 offences occur at the same time the referee must punish the more serious. Thus, if a promising attack is stopped by a reckless challenge then the caution (yellow card, YC) is for the reckless challenge and not the SPA.”
1/2 TO CLARIFY:
The Laws state that if 2 offences occur at the same time the referee must punish the more serious. Thus, if a promising attack is stopped (SPA) by a reckless challenge then the caution (yellow card, YC) is for the reckless challenge and not SPA.
— The IFAB (@TheIFAB) July 2, 2020
Now, some say that Martinelli’s shove at the throw-in wasn’t an SPA offence, despite Oliver wetting himself with excitement to play an advantage to Wolves.
If the advantage was so good that, as many have said, it would have punished Wolves to stop play, then how can that be? It would only be unfair to Wolves if it was a promising attack, which it was.
You don’t get to have it both ways.
At no point between the first and second challenge did Oliver indicate to Martinelli that he would be booked when play was next stopped.
A yellow card is supposed to be a ‘caution’ – a warning to alter your behaviour because you could get sent off.
There was no warning here.
Would Martinelli have made that second challenge if he knew he had already been booked?
It seems unlikely, I mean, he’s not Granit Xhaka.
It’s also worth noting how quick Oliver was to get the Martinelli red card out. It was reminiscent of Stuart Attwell and Gabriel, when he couldn’t wait to send him off, but that’s another discussion for another day.
Reminder that Oliver didn't book the Wolves player when he hacked Martinelli down on the halfway line. He didn't *have*to do that.
— Daily Cannon (@DailyCannon) February 10, 2022
After the game, Mikel Arteta was so incensed about the Martinelli red card that he said he is going to ask for a private meeting with PGMOL.
“To be fair, it’s the first time I’ve seen a red card like this in 18 years that I’ve been in this league,” Arteta said.
You, aggressively: correlation doesn't imply causation
Me: The last calendar year in which Arsenal didn't get a PL red card, 2004, contained their last league title
You, meekly: I was wrong, I apologise, I will learn
— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) February 10, 2022
“I think you have to be pretty willing to give a red card in that situation. But still it happened. We know that playing with 10 men in this league you’re not going to get points, enough points, the points that we want and we have to stop it.
“But to be fair it’s difficult to find more arguments and more ways to transmit that to the players. Everybody says it’s the most disciplined group they’ve seen in the last 15 years, but still we are getting red cards for other things.
“If you ask me if I’m happy with the decisions we’ve had this season, I’m not at all. But that’s a conversation I will have privately with the officials.
Poor piece of officiating. Of course in law he is allowed to issue two yellow cards in this manner. However he should have stopped play at the throw in and yellow carded at that point. Pro-active not reactive approach would have avoided the second yellow https://t.co/EQu5urZwoP
— KEITH HACKETT (@HACKETTREF) February 10, 2022
“We need explanations, we need explanations with what happened in VAR and I need explanations with what happened today.”
Even the former players on BT Sport – all three of them, none of whom were Arsenal – agreed the red shouldn’t have been given.
This video is worth watching for Robbie Savage using Peter Walton’s words to flabbergast Peter Walton as he tries to defend his former colleague as usual:
https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/1491901172894113794
