Arsenal’s youngsters were fantastic in their performance against Pep Guardiola’s Man City yesterday, but we were undone within two minutes when VAR overturned a penalty decision in favour of City, and Gabriel was sent off for two of the silliest yellow cards we are likely to see this season.
Every pundit and commenter believed that the first yellow was given for interfering with the penalty spot before Mahrez stepped up to score, but according to the Arsenal players it was because Gabriel said something to Stuart Attwell that must have annoyed him.
When asked about it, the Arteta stand-in Albert Stuivenberg told Arsenal.com: “That’s not what the players are telling me. He made a remark to the referee and also other players confirmed that, it was just a normal comment and he gave a yellow card, but it doesn’t matter in the end because if you have a yellow card you must control your emotions a little bit better.
“He was in a situation which is not the most dangerous situation and you cannot take the risk, so that is a moment where young players still have to learn, and we have a lot of young players. That is part of the process, but instead of talking about that moment, I would say that in the end we are very proud about what we’ve seen from this Arsenal team.
“If you compare it to the start of the season and where we’ve come from and where we are now, playing against one of the best teams in the world, and competing like this. Also, on the ball today we dared to play and created a lot of chances and also prevented them from creating chances. Yeah, that is something we can build on.”
It is such a shame though, that the referee had such a big influence. We were looking well on the way to an historic win against the Champions before that crazy two minutes, and Gabriel must feel some responsibility for that as well.
As far as I am concerned, being booked for dissent is just as bad as tampering with the penalty spot, and I hope that Arteta can convince Gabriel to hold his anger in check in the future and use it to encourage you to fight back, rather than lose your cool and get sent off.
Gabriel is young but incredibly talented, and should follow Lacazette’s lead rather than acting like Xhaka!
Watch Albert Stuivenberg’s FULL Post-match Press conference here….
very good indid gaby,keep it up my guy,the win us due the influences of refree,who favours them,but it is a wonderfull and amazing game.
And people wonder why we get so many yellow and red cards. REALLY!!!!!!
Reggie,
You are right.
I for one demand noise to be made on points made by teams like Liverpool of recent, City and Man U, Barca in Spain etc
due to playing less men due to red cards, and or penalties.
I think City has so many points due to this.
I don’t want to be racial here but I also think some people are prone to be carded than others.
Many Yellows and Reds are unavoidable but many (and thats where we fall down) ARE avoidable.
Still feel bad about yesterday’s result and the fact that spuds won make its worst however we did it to ourselves with xhaka and Gabriel losing their heads, we can blame the ref but if xhaka and Gabriel don’t do what they did we win 3 or maybe 4 nil
One word—SALIBA
Once again the clown Xhaka cost us the game, his penalty was the start of our downfall, all that hard work was undone once again by Xhaka yet he still gets to keep his place, he is a disgrace. Gabriel was foolish but I believe without Xhaka brain fart Gabriel keeps his cool. We deserve to win but it looks like the team is going in the right direction, shame Partey has to go, now w are left with Xhaka
Xhaka is a very good player par his silly mistakes. I wonder if coaches point this out to him or not.
Pal, but all the good work done by the entire team is being undone by one rash instance by Xhaka time and time again.Remember the penalty against BHA? And we were out of continental competition? A player of that age, an international, a country captain, a former club captain whould beheave better in the penalty box. I always tell my pals that when the ball is at our end and Xhaka near it, a penalty or set piece is assured. This is my opinion, only hope the Xhaka fan club do not construe this as abuse. I am questioning the sporting actions of the player and not the player. Hope the pals understand the difference.
Arsenal was on song at Emirates, but I would not say the same about officiating of the game, but only to say it was awful.
Remember, It is ALWAYS the players fault!!
It is NEVER the referee’s fault!!
I thought Atwell himself was upset and a little angry before the first yellow card he gave to Gabriel.
If he gave it just because Gabriel made a remark, I think that shows Atwell was on edge, and I believed he lashed out with a yellow because he was angry.
The red was just icing on Atwell’s cake