Mikel Arteta claimed that he was going to request talks after a spate of red cards for Arsenal, and former referee Keith Hackett believes that he should.
The Gunners have picked up four red cards from their last six matches in all competitions, and it could well have a major impact on how their finish the season if they do not rectify the current issues.
On Thursday, Gabriel Martinelli picked up the strangest red card, with the Brazilian actually getting two yellow cards for two separate incidents during the one play, and manager Mikel Arteta said at full-time that he would be requested to talk with those in charge.
Former PL ref Hackett insists that he should in fact open up a dialogue with the board of officials.
“He said he was unhappy. I have previously suggested that Arteta should have a meeting with the PGMOL anyway,” Hackett told the Football Insider.
“When a club has a rising disciplinary record, there needs to be a meeting in order to clarify what was going on.
“Managers and referees do need to get together, I think, to ensure these kinds of things don’t happen in the future.
“Arteta is well within his rights to request a meeting if he feels that is necessary and the PGMOL should have no problem with it.
“I’m sure they will want to sort out Arsenal’s poor record as much as Arsenal do.”
We are still currently on course for a spot in the top-four, and it would be extremely frustrating if we narrowly missed out whilst dropping points because of our torrid disciplinary record. We may have been able to survive against Wolves at the weekend, but it would be naive to believe that we can continue to fight like that, and we don’t exactly have the largest squad to deal with all these absences either.
Does Arteta need to act sooner, rather than later in order to stop this from undoing our positive work this season?
Patrick