"Was it a clear and obvious error" - Former PL referee explains why he has 'major doubts' about Saliba's red-card in Arsenal loss
Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey believes VAR shouldn't have intervened to award William Saliba a red card during Arsenal's 2-0 loss against Bournemouth. The Gunners suffered their first defeat of the Premier League season against the Cherries on Saturday, October 19, at the Vitality Stadium.
Saliba was given his marching orders for fouling Evanilson and allegedly denying him a goal-scoring opportunity. Although referee Rob Jones initially showed him a yellow card, a quick VAR check made him upgrade it to red.
In an article for The Sun, Mark Halsey discussed why he had doubts about VAR's decision to intervene.
"I had major doubts over William Saliba’s red card and would have stayed with referee Rob Jones’ on-field decision of a caution," Halsey wrote.
He added:
“The Arsenal defender fouled Bournemouth striker Evanilson but was it a clear and obvious error for VAR to intervene? It’s a subjective decision, so I didn’t think VAR Jarred Gillett needed to get involved."
The former referee then talked about the four criteria checked during professional last-man offenses, claiming that he had doubts about three of them. He wrote:
"For the denial of a goalscoring opportunity, we look at four key criteria. And I had doubts over three of those. The distance between the offence and the goal was lengthy, the general direction of play saw the ball coming across Evanilson and not in front of him and also the location and number of defenders was questionable. The likelihood of him keeping or gaining control of the ball would have probably been in the favour of the Cherries forward because David Raya was back-pedalling towards his own goal.”
Mark Halsey also talked about Jamie Carragher's deleted tweet where he alleged that PGMOL chief Howard Webb was involved in overturning the decision against Saliba.
“PGMOL chief Howard Webb was spotted on TV listening into the VAR comms and that is normal for him to have access — just like the media broadcasters,” Halsey added. "There is no way he would have had any input or communication into the Saliba red card.”
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta describes playing with 10 men against Bournemouth as an 'impossible task'
Arsenal conceded two goals within nine minutes in the second half after getting reduced to 10 men. Ryan Christie opened the scoring for the Cherries in the 70th minute, followed by a penalty from Justin Kluivert in the 79th minute.
Speaking at the post-match press conference after the 2-0 loss, Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta described why it was an ordeal for his side to win after losing William Saliba in the first half. He said:
“Playing for 65 minutes with 10 men at this level is an impossible task.”
He added:
“It’s an accident waiting to happen not to get the points. I can’t fault the team for their effort, commitment, how intelligent they were to play in the way that we had to. There was a big moment at 0-0 when we had a big opening, a one-against-one situation with the keeper and we don’t manage to score."
“Football is a sport where errors are part of that. Tonight we made two big errors that have cost us the game unfortunately.”
William Saliba's red card means that he will miss Arsenal's clash with table-toppers Liverpool on Sunday, October 27, at Emirates Stadium.