Arsenal get clear referee verdict on Mikel Merino red card controversy vs Aston Villa
Arsenal beat rivals Aston Villa 4-1 on Tuesday night but were lucky to keep Mikel Merino on the field despite being just two goals ahead.
Arsenal have been told by a former Premier League referee that Mikel Merino should have been sent off against Aston Villa. The Gunners secured a crucial 4-1 victory over their title rivals on Tuesday night at the Emirates Stadium, although the final half hour could have gone quite differently.
Strikes from Gabriel Magalhaes and Martin Zubimendi, less than four minutes into the second half, put Arsenal ahead, with major controversy arising just before the hour mark. As Morgan Rogers appeared to break through, Merino pulled him by his shirt to concede a foul.
Villa players argued that it should have been the Spaniard’s second booking of the clash, having already received one for a foul on Amadou Onana just before half-time. Former Premier League manager Mark Halsey was later asked for his views on the incident.
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He posted on
Asked if a referee thought a player had ever been booked, Halsey replied: “Not every challenge is a (yellow card emoji), Mark.”
“The referees will judge the challenges on their merits, in my opinion there are far too many (yellow card emoji) shown unnecessarily. The referees have lost the art of dealing with these players – Merino’s offense was nailed in the 2nd (yellow card emoji).”
Had Merino been sent off, Villa could have come back into the game, but Arteta quickly replaced him to prevent that possibility.
Leandro Trossard, somewhat controversially, and Gabriel Jesus then found the back of the net, with Ollie Watkins also scoring a consolation goal for Villa in added time.
The victory put Arsenal six points clear of Villa and put pressure on title rivals Man City to break Sunderland’s unbeaten record at the Stadium of Light.
After the impressive victory, a jubilant Arteta spoke at a press conference, saying: “I’m so happy. We play every three days, we played an opponent who comes from 11 consecutive wins. A great team, very difficult to play against, and we knew we were going to have periods throughout the game.”
“We talked emotionally about how demanding it was going to be and we struggled in the first ten minutes, arriving a little late, playing through us and creating open space situations in which they are very dangerous.
“Then we adapted, had a bit more control, two big chances from Viktor (Gyokeres) and the first one was a disjointed situation inside the box. We didn’t manage to score in the second half.
“We then competed much better for everything. The timing was better and the goal was achieved in an extraordinary way, so effective in everything we did.
“Unlike the last matches where we had so many big situations, today we were very prolific and precise to make the difference.”