Mikel Arteta Demands Explanation For Gabriel Martinelli Red Card... From The Wrong Person
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta suggested referee Michael Oliver was overly keen to send off Gabriel Martinelli during Thursday's 1-0 win at Wolves.
Martinelli was dismissed in unusual circumstances in the 69th minute at Molineux as Oliver showed him two yellow cards in one smooth motion.
The first was for attempting to impede the taking of a Wolves throw-in. Martinelli, frustrated at losing the ball moments earlier, had pushed his right arm towards the throat of Daniel Podence.
Despite Podence falling over, he still managed to take the throw-in which set Wolves on the attack down the right wing.
This is where Martinelli's second offense occurred just seconds later. With Oliver waving play on, Chiquinho attempted to run clear of Martinelli, who cynically barged him to the floor.
It was a clear yellow card. One which under normal circumstances Martinelli might have been happy to take from a tactical perspective as it halted a promising attack for Wolves.
Not today though. Referee Oliver flashed his yellow card, then immediately flashed it again before producing the red. Next he used his hands to clearly communicate his decision by pointing at the two areas of the pitch where Martinelli had done wrong.
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Arsenal went on to win the game but Arteta was not in the best of moods after the final whistle.
"It's the first time I've seen a red card like this in 18 years that I've been in this league," he moaned during a post-match press conference, as quoted by football.london.
"I think you have to be pretty willing to give a red card in that situation."
This had been the 15th red card shown to an Arsenal player since Arteta became manager in December 2019.
"We know that playing with 10 men in this league you're not gonna get points, enough points, the points that we want and we have to stop it," he continued.
"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 card for other things."
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Arteta was then asked if he felt like some referees had an agenda against his team. It was a leading question and the Spaniard almost gave the reporter the angry rant he was looking for.
"If you ask me if I'm happy with the decisions we've had this season, I’m not at all," Arteta fired back.
"But that's a conversation I will have privately with the officials.
"We need explanations, we need explanations with what happened in VAR and I need explanations with what happened today."
Indeed Arteta should demand an explanation for Martinelli's red card. But if he is serious about fixing Arsenal's disciplinary record he would be best advised to ask questions of his own player rather than the referee.