3) Mitrovic is the new Balotelli, and red cards are officially in fashion
There were a total of five red cards in the seven Saturday afternoon kickoffs today, and the first of those came in lunchtime game between Newcastle and Arsenal.
When the Toon‘s new young striker Aleksandar Mitrovic arrived at St. James’ Park, he arrived with the tag of being aggressive and being a liability, and he has certainly proven that in the opening stages of his career at Newcastle. On his debut for the club, the striker was booked after just 15 seconds. In their away game at Swansea, he received a yellow after two minutes, and today, he was sent off after just 16 minutes.
The Serbian is only 20-years-old, but desperately needs to calm down and learn the ways of the Premier League. He missed the next three games against West Ham, Watford and Chelsea after a challenge on Arsenal’s Francis Coquelin was deemed worthy of a sending off by referee Andre Mariner.
Stoke had two men sent off in the space of six minutes in their home game against West Brom, with Ibrahim Afellay being the first to go after flicking his hand in frustration at Craig Garnder after being fouled by the Baggie‘s midfielder. Shortly afterwards, Charlie Adam saw red for stamping on West Brom’s Craig Dawson, with the referee relying on his linesman for information following a clash between Adam and Dawson taking place by the touchline.
At Anfield, Liverpool saw Philippe Coutinho sent off for two bookable offences in their 3-0 defeat to West Ham, meaning he will miss their trip to face Mancheser United at Old Trafford in two weeks time. Meanwhile West Ham themselves saw one of their goalscorers, Mark Noble, shown a straight red. Referee Kevin Friend blew for a foul on Noble as he tried to clear the ball from the edge of his box, however, Noble continued to slide in and beat Danny Ings to the loose ball and was given his marching orders as a result, the sending off was incredibly harsh.
