There is no doubting it ruined one of the most pulsating Premier League games of stratospherically high quality in a long while, but many are directing their anger at the wrong protagonist for Leandro Trossard’s game-changing red card at Manchester City.
By the letter of the law, Trossard deserved to get his marching orders, but that is not what is angering many Arsenal fans on a drizzly Monday morning.
If Trossard was cautioned for kicking the ball away, why did Jeremy Doku not get booked for doing the same earlier in the match? And why did Dominik Szoboszlai’s attempts to drive the ball onto Stanley Park at Anfield last week against Nottingham Forest go unpunished? Consistency, huh?
Five games into the season, fans of a title chaser are calling for PGMOL chiel Howard Webb’s head and referee Michael Oliver, who was the man in the middle for Szoboszlai’s incident last weekend too, has a north London arrest warrant issued for charges of corruption.
i has been told the reasons, however, for the discrepancies. Look away now Gunners, you’re not going to like it.
One of the rule changes instilled at the start of the season focused on combating timewasting. Arsenal unfurled every trick in the book at the Eithad to do just that – conduct that John Stones called “dirty” and led Bernardo Silva to claim “only one team played football”.
But there is little referees can do about players going down injured when they are not or pulling up with cramp to break up play. One infringement that is within their control, however, is a clampdown on “kicking the ball away to prevent a free-kick being taken”.
The latter part of this directive is key and why Trossard’s yellow card was justified and Doku and Szoboszlai were not, or at least open to interpretation.
Premier League sources told i that it was “clear” Trossard booted the ball well away from where the City free-kick was being taken. Doku, however, was simply passing the ball back in the direction of where he thought the foul had taken place.
A closer look at the Szoboszlai incident, sources said, implies the letter of the law was applied here too. No Forest player is near the ball as Szoboszlai lashes it away in frustration, thus no free-kick being taken is prevented.
The context of the match has to be taken into account here, too. Liverpool were chasing the game against Forest, so Szoboszlai kicking the ball away hinders only his own team, not the opponent. Trossard had reason to kick the ball away, with Arsenal 2-1 up, even if it only crossed his mind for a split second.
One club has fallen foul to this new directive more than anyone else, which is why the vitriol has reached the levels it has in the aftermath of Arsenal’s draw in Manchester.
"It's not even a debate. You don't need to watch it 30 times! He's wrong" 😡
Roy Keane says Leandro Trossard's second yellow was the 'height of stupidity" 🫣 pic.twitter.com/kpgXx2KWTz
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 22, 2024
Two dismissals for second yellow cards acquired after preventing an opponent from taking a free-kick has cost Arsenal four points this season, after Declan Rice’s red card against Brighton.
Four points is more than enough to keep an unrelenting City out in front once more and take Arsenal’s wait for a Premier League crown into a third decade.
But having been burned twice, Arsenal cannot fly so close to the sun again, whether they like the law or not.
Doku and Szoboszlai could have been booked, but there are valid reasons why they were not, abiding by rules etched in ink at the start of the season.
It may hurt, but Trossard can have no arguments. Webb and Oliver are not the villains here. The culprit is lurking among their own.
