Arsenal suffered a 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth this season with William Saliba shown a straight red card after initially shown a yellow by ref Rob Jones.
Saliba hauled Bournemouth striker Evanilson down in the first half of their Premier League clash at Vitality Stadium and was shown a yellow card for this action.
However, referee Rob Jones was instructed by the video assistant referee Jarred Gillett to review the incident on the pitch-side monitor. Upon his review, Saliba was dimmed to have denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity and therefore deserved to be sent off.
Bournemouth took control of the game and won. As Arsenal continues to recover lost points, PGMOL chief Howard Webb says the referee made a “clear and obvious error” before sending off Saliba.
According to Webb, Jones’ initial decision to show a yellow card was a clear error and the correct decision was eventually reached.
“I think that the offence committed by William Saliba in this situation did deny Evanilson an obvious goalscoring opportunity,” Webb said on Match Officials Mic’d Up. “I think the yellow card that was issued by Rob Jones on the field was clearly and obviously wrong.
“There’s two things that VAR can do here to prove that the on-field decision was wrong. Firstly, you can see that Ben White is a long way away. He’s not going to get to Evanilson from that position.
“And then secondly, they can see that David Raya is backing off and when the ball dies in front of Evanilson, even though it’s some distance from goal, he’s going to get on to that ball. He’s going to have time to gain nice control just for the goalkeeper to beat. So, for me, a good intervention by the VAR, a clear and obvious error in not showing a red card on the field.”
The defeat kickstarted a run of four-straight games without a win for Arsenal. With the Gunners now nine points behind leaders Liverpool, Mikel Arteta will be eager to see his team back on track after the international break.
