Pundit says the referee got controversial decision right in Arsenal’s last match

Kevin Campbell has discussed Tyrone Mings’ foul on Bukayo Saka, which earned the England defender a yellow card after some fans reckoned it should have been a sending off.

The Arsenal attacker was caught after Mings had cleared the ball and it didn’t look like he intended to hurt Saka in any way, but in another game, he could have received a harsh red card.

Former Arsenal man, Campbell believes the defender got the ball and clearly couldn’t avoid contact with the Arsenal man, which forced him to commit the foul. 

He stated that in his playing days that would even not have been a foul and it is certainly not a red card.

He tells Football Insider: “Yes, he makes contact with Saka’s heel but that does not make it an automatic yellow card.

“In the modern day, perhaps it is a yellow card. Is it a red card? No way. Back in my day it would have been play on. It wouldn’t have even been a foul.

“You do not want to see red cards for that. It would have ruined the game.”

Just Arsenal Opinion

Since the introduction of VAR, refereeing decisions have been as inconsistent as ever and it can frustrate the players and fans.

The Saka incident truly didn’t deserve a sending off, but if it was Granit Xhaka that committed the foul, the chances of the Arsenal man getting sent off would be very high because of his reputation.

Tags Kevin Campbell

3 Comments

  1. Let me start by saying I am a Villa fan and, like Gabby (!), I was a bit pee’d off after the game last Saturday. You boys played really well in the first half – you controlled the game without too much goal threat though. I did think, as Gerard said, we probably had enough chances to get an equaliser BUT probably didn’t deserve one on the balance of play. We have been hot and cold under Stevie and Saturday was definitely cold!

    However, on to Mings’ tackle – I didn’t see it as a foul at all. In fact I thought it was a really good tackle. His feet were on the ground, he got to the ball well in advance of Saka and he actually made a decent pass as well. It was a perfectly executed sliding tackle and, as several pundits have said, Saka should have had the footballing intelligence to pull out if he didn’t want to get caught. If that tackle is being punished you are effectively saying that players cannot go to ground at all.

  2. Maybe it did not deserve a straight red but certainly it deserved a yellow. So many defenders go hard on Saka and it goes unnoticed but the moment Xhaka does something it is immediately noticed and out comes the card. So much for consistency in officiating.

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