Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger and vice-captain Mikel Arteta are both unhappy with Chris Foy after he sent off the Spaniard during the club’s 2-0 victory against Crystal Palace yesterday lunchtime.
The Gunners were leading 1-0 at the time thanks to an Arteta penalty, but he was later sent off after he tripped up former-Gunner Marouane Chamakh.
After the foul was conceded, several Palace players surrounded the referee and he ended up producing a straight red after he believed Arteta denied the striker a goal-scoring opportunity, despite him being miles away from goal.
Fortunately for Wenger and co., the red card didn’t change the result, but after the game, he expressed his thoughts on the incident.
“We have a good ground to appeal,” said Wenger. “If he is only suspended for one game, I won’t do it because he is suspended for Tuesday night and anyway I would not have played him, but it was more today’s game that was at stake that you worry about.
“It was the wrong decision because it has to be a good goalscoring opportunity.
“He was far from goal, it was an accidental foul, he was not the last man.
“I think the referee got that one wrong and after that we dealt well with the situation.
“We were mature, organised and didn’t become nervous and we got the second goal.
“Szczesny made two very good saves at an important moment of the game.”
As for Arteta, he had this to say on the matter.
“It was a very harsh decision to send me off,” Arteta told Arsenal Player. “Chamakh kicks my fight foot, I have seen it on television. It is 40 yards away from goal too.
“It is true that I tried to block him with my hand but then he came with his left foot into my right calf and then we were both on the floor. It was never a tackle from me.
“It was the most important period of the game. There was always uncertainty we could always get caught. When we scored the first we were on top of the game, that decision changed the game and we were in trouble. But thankfully we held the result, we scored a second and we won the game.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt
