August 21st 2023.
Mikel Arteta was not pleased with the officiating in Arsenal's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Monday night. After Takehiro Tomiyasu was sent off for two soft yellow cards, Arteta was concerned by the way time-wasting was being punished.
The game had been in Arsenal's favour for over an hour. They had two excellent chances to open the scoring in the first half, however Eddie Nketiah hit the post with the first and then dinked the ball over the bar with the other.
The Gunners eventually took a deserved lead when Nketiah was brought down in the penalty box and skipper Martin Odegaard calmly slotting the ball into the bottom left corner. But the game changed in controversial fashion in the 67th minute when Tomiyasu was shown two yellow cards in the space of a few minutes.
The first was for time-wasting, although it seemed like team-mate Kai Havertz was the bigger culprit during the incident, while the second appeared to be for a tug of Andre Ayew’s shirt, although replays showed minimal, if any, contact.
Unfortunately for Arsenal, second yellow cards cannot be checked by VAR and Tomiyasu was given his marching orders with the north Londoners forced to defend with 10 men for the rest of the contest.
Arteta was clearly unhappy with the interference and suggested that the ‘new rules’ had been introduced on the fly and were different from what had been explained to teams before the season started.
He also expressed his frustration with the application of the new time-wasting rules. Arteta pointed out that it will be very difficult for teams to adapt to the changes and they will have to win in this context. He even joked that maybe they will have to play with eight players!
In another interview with BBC Sport, Arteta said that Tomiyasu had only held onto the ball for eight seconds before being booked for time-wasting. He concluded by saying despite the officiating, he was happy that the team overcame the difficult situation and it would make them better.
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