The biggest talking point last night after Arsenal’s tough 1-0 win against Crystal Palace rightly centered on the two very strange yellow cards for Takehero Tomiyasu, which were both for innocuous and unfathomable indiscretions.
His first was for taking too long to take a throw in, and in fact he was only passed the ball long after the ball went out of play. Also that wasn’t even the longest time in the game for a throw-in….
Tomiyasu was given a yellow for 8 seconds (yes, 8 seconds) of 'timewasting' – and a yellow for Ayew falling over.
The lack of consistency at the highest level of refereeing is so painful.
— LE GROVE (@LeGrove) August 21, 2023
But the second yellow was an absolute travesty, Tomi was accused of pulling Ayew back, when in fact he didn’t even touch Ayew’s shirt and the Palace man just threw himself on the ground. Check out the replay….
Tomiyasu red card was absurd,they really hate Arsenal. pic.twitter.com/oduo1QTYBX
— MAJORITY LEADER (@Anne_Lubi) August 22, 2023
As Arteta said about the time-wasting incident, the refs need to be consistent and book everyone for time wasting, but more to the point, have a look at this Ayew foul on Bukayo Saka, which was NOT worthy of anyy card at all!
Ayew pulled Saka down in a similar fashion to Tomiyasu, but did not receive a second yellow. Lack of consistency in refereeing decisions is frustrating for fans @FA_PGMOL pic.twitter.com/VHZvOnLNyr
— Krafisensi (@Krafisensi4) August 22, 2023
So, I ask the question again; Do you think Tomi’s red card was harsh or not?
It was very harsh. Arsenal should appeal against both yellow cards, because we’ll need Tomiyasu for the next away match
Zinchenko playing inverted-LB will make us more dangerous in the upcoming home game, but we’d better play Tomiyasu or Kiwior there in tough away games like the one at Selhurst Park
“sighs”
You CANNOT appeal a yellow card.
On the plus side it is only one game he will miss – the home game against Fulham.
Ridiculous refereeing..
That sucks because it was wrong
Absolutely agree there – it was made worse by the fact that Ayew and Co were diving all over the place trying to con the referee and nothing was done.
We got the win though and that, at the end of the day is the most important thing. Zinchenko or Tierney can come in at left back and perhaps White on the right..
Yeah. Eze made an obvious dive in our penalty box, yet no yellow card for him
According to me the referee actually acted like he has issues with tomiyasu bt that’s football, fA should be serious abt arsenal this season am Vincent from uganda Africa bse we can’t tore rate such stupid decisions
The referee should’ve brandished the first yellow card at Havertz for holding the ball for fifteen seconds, instead of Tomiyasu
Both cards were obviously a very controversial decision. The level of inconsistency in epl officiating is disgusting. I wonder why they’re called professionals. There should be strict discipline to these controversies because it affects the outcome of a match.
a yellow card is not challengeable to my understanding
Nor is a red caused by two yellows, it’s only a straight red that can be challenged.
@gotanidea,,, in the English Premier League you cannot appeal a double yellow card. You can only appeal if it’s a mistaken identity. Unfortunately Tomiyasu was booked because of the time taken. It started with Martinelli throwing the ball to Shite Havertz, who actually took the most time with the ball in his hands,,, then he handed the ball to Tomiyasu who only took 8.2 seconds to throw the ball. Tomiyasu had to actually run 20 metres to take it. The referees now have to be consistent with this. Second yellow card was wrongly shown. That was soft. But unfortunately clubs cannot appeal it. It sucks big time,,, but at the end of the day, you don’t put yourself in that position to allow the referee to hand out a yellow card in the first place. The refereeing wasn’t the best. Crystal Palace got away with far worse. We got the three points. We now move on to Fulham
Well, at least the inconsistent and incompetent referee gave us a penalty. Can’t wait for the next game
Very harsh for Tomi to receive either yellow. It looks like referees are being subjective on who they dish cards out to.
I was glad there was a yellow card for the time wasting since I don’t like it. That said, I thought Tomi was unfortunate to get the card because he was the last in a chain of our players who were time wasting( Havertz took nearly twice the amount of time Tomi did before handing over the ball. It has been called rotational time wasting and Jon Fox wrote about it exhaustively in a different post. As for the second, I thought it was really harsh. A foul, maybe,but not one that warrants a yellow card.
The cards aside, am I the only one who thought Tomi was having a good game? To me,he looked like the Tomi in his first season before the injuries,which we haven’t seen in a while. He’s going to be key for us if he can stay fit.
Like everyone else he was having a good game.
Agree, I thought Tomi was playing well, very solid – like the old Tomi, as you say
To answer the headline,HARSH! so damn HARSH.
The 1st yellow card was definitely a yellow. It was for Arsenal time wasting and Tomi was the unlucky recipient. Very similar to a yellow in rugby after multiple infringements and the last guy gets it unfortunately.
It’s ridiculous to suggest the timer restarts every time a new player gets the ball. No, let’s be objective and admit it was a fair yellow and not just 8 seconds in total as being suggested!
Second yellow was absolute BS and the dive is to blame as much as the ref.
How many more times! We were not wasting time we are just crap at taking throw ins!
Ok let me put it simply for you. Whether it was done deliberately or not…it’s still called time wasting by the refs!
Or have you ever heard of a term, “exceeded time limit due to lack of available options presented to the thrower”…….no it’s called time wasting regardless.
Insane. Tomi did not make even one foul the entire game and got two yellows. You give a red to a violent player who disrespects the rules or dangers other players, not a guy who took 8 seconds to throw and might have slightly touched the opponent’s back. And did no other foul the whole game. A shame.
On the plus side, the ref was so bad he gave us a boolshit penalty. Eddie obviously dived and at the start of the dive he touched the keeper’s fingers so VAR did not overturn it because there is “contact”, but VAR would never have given us the penalty if the ref did not give it. Don’t know if we would have scored otherwise.
The card was very harsh. I’m sure the referee saw that after the match. I wish he can apologize. When it’s Arsenal, we should be very careful. We are hated much than anyone. Let’s kill off games on the earliest to avoid such.
It was unfortunate that Tomi was carded for the throw, which was within the time limit, but he had been taking ages in all his other throws up till then, so this may have had a cumulative effect on Coote’s decision.
You’d have expected our coaching staff to have drilled the players on this issue, especially so as White was carded in the first match, and PGMOL warned all clubs of new rules on this particular issue.
Expect more cards.
The second card was pathetic, Tomi may have touched Ayew slightly, but not enough to bring him down.
I thought we got lucky over the possible penalty for Palace, which was about as convincing as the one we were awarded.
Whats the time limit for a throw?
Even though it didn’t deserve a yellow,Tomi shouldn’t have risked it being already on one, knowing the ref but more importantly Ayew was going nowhere,our LCB had it covered.
I am afraid ludicrous decisions like the second booking of Tomi will become a regular occurrence as the powers that be aim to turn association football into a non contact sport.Sheer incompetence made even worse by the fact that the cheating player escaped without any punishment.Basically a disgrace.
It doesn’t matter if Tomiyasu didn’t commit any fouls. He was yellow carded for the total length of time from when the ball was out of play. It started from Martinelli to Havertz then Tomiyasu. The minute he threw the ball into play he received the yellow card. If it were to be 6 seconds, he still may have received the yellow. It was Havertz that started the rot. It looked suspect because Tomiyasu ran up 20 metres to take it. Tomiyasu has always been slow and indecisive when taking throw ins. Tierney has been another one guilty for taking too long to throwtheballintoplay. Clubs have been warned from the outset. And if they were fair diincom about time wasting, start picking on goalkeepers that drop to both knees after catching simple balls. The rule is 7 seconds for goalkeepers holding the ball. That is the rule. Anything longer than 7 seconds is an indirect free kick from where the goalkeeper was standing. Second offence is a yellow card. Goalkeeping laws started changing in the mid 80s. That was when goalkeepers were banned from picking up back passes. There were two different changes to that law. The one in the mid 80s and another in very early 90s. Actually there was the third Goalkeeping law. That was the 7 second law. That was first trialled at amateur level football before it was brought into professional football. These days officials turn a blind eye to it. Young goalkeepers today are copying everything their favourite goalkeepers do. Gordon Pickford is the worst offender. But at the end of the day there needs to be consistency across the board. That’s the problem. We’ll soon see which clubs get favoured. That’s what I don’t trust
I don’t think anyone is arguing the red card wasn’t extremely harsh. The first was because havertz held onto the ball for a while before Tomi took over – why Tomi was punished for that, I’m not sure. On the second, Tomi definitely thought about pulling ayew’s shirt – I thought he touched ayew with his hand, ayew felt something and went down (you could argue because he was expecting the pull but who knows). I’d defend the ref on the second, he got conned, if not by ayew then by the situation, and because it was only a yellow, it couldn’t be corrected.
The ref gave a few things in our favour, and there were a couple of penalty calls that could have gone against us on another day – one in particular – so I don’t think it was bias. He got it wrong, though, that’s for sure.
One thing to remember is that sometimes it’s just unfortunate – things happen by chance in games that are nothing to do with the referee (eg the beach ball incident several years ago, but also much less obvious incidents). I’d file this under that category.
It wasn’t harsh but bias and/or corruption by the ref. Watch how no player will get sent off this season for the exact same thing. Remember the martinelli red card. Never again seen despite players making several fouls in the same sequence.
But he gave us a pen and denied palace one some will say. Well VAR would have overturned them. The 2nd yellow card could not be overturned by VAR and he knew it and did it deliberately.
He may not be guilty of inflicting the fatal blow, but Tomi was the one caught on the crime scene with the bloody knife in hand.
But the second yellow card is a disgrace and maybe of things to come, and with the rehiring of Lee Mason am bracing myself.
English or premiership referees never cease to amaze me!! The second yellow card culminating into a red card for Tomiyasu was neither new not a surprise from those referees!! What happened to VAR because the action of J Ayew was actually punishable and not an offence or foul by Tomi!!! That’s how the same referees made arsenal fail to complete in fourth place in the 2021/22 when they favoured Tottenham Hotspurs and disfavour Arsenal to the end!!!
The little knowledge I have about football is that is is a called a ‘limited’ contact sport, meaning players contact is expected, inevitable and most times required. That being said some contacts are illegal hence the booking system which is based upon the severity of the contact and now a days the intention behind the contact.
That second yellow card shown to Tommie was not even an offence let alone a bookable one. The first yellow was understandable, not deserving but understandable as tomi was the fall guy that got punished for the cumulative time wasting that started with martinelli who left it for havertz ( who should have been the one booked) who in turn left it for tomi.
All the same 3pts, we move on Coyg.
The time wasting actually started from TP5 where he took too long to get the ball, that went out for a goal kick, to Aaron ramsdale. There the ref even went to him and hand gestured at him telling him he wasn’t going to tolerate any more time wasting shenanigans from him. To be fair they were all doing it, Ramsdale did it, saliva too, partey, Ben white, they all did thier own cheeky bit, it was hard luck that tomi got the card.
But no where on this planet was that second yellow an offence.
We were lucky to get those 3pts.
Long may the luck continue.
I really don’t understand the meaning of this time wasting started from Martinelli or Harvert to Tomi, I believe the job or work of ball boy is to pick any ball ball that goes out of play, do you expect a winning team to be running for a loose ball to throw in?
Every winning team in the whole world does this, I think they should amend the rule that the first person that get to any loose ball should either play or throw in the ball inorder to avoid time wasting and failure to do so within the stipulated time, the ball should be awarded to the opposition team instead of this yellow card of a thing.
The yellow card of time wasting will affect almost every team believe me, it happens to arsenal but will affect a lot of team..
Referee will be bias on this because of their favorite team alias they are human beings too…
One tried to rip the shirt off and the another didn’t even pull the shirt. Guess which one got yellow carded?
To be fair to the referee, most of us thought Tomi fouled Ayew before we saw the replay. There was no way you blow a foul in that condition and not give a yellow card.
I see no fault of the referee’s cos is human prone to an honest mistake not this conspiracy theory thing