It was a tackle that left Mikel Arteta seething, but it appears that Leicester’s Jamie Vardy will escape punishment for his challenge on Arsenal’s Shkodran Mustafi.
Towards the end of the first half of the Premier League match between the two teams, Vardy looked to have slipped but then connected with Mustafi’s temple as he rolled over.
The gash that the striker’s studs made on the side of the defenders head evidenced the contact, but referee, Chris Kavanagh, clearly didn’t deem the challenge as dangerous play and handed Vardy a yellow card.
Arteta’s anger was compounded in the second half when Eddie Nketiah was given a red card for a late challenge after Kavanagh opted to consult his pitch side monitor, something he failed to do for the earlier transgression.
The Daily Mail have reported that Vardy will be free to face Bournemouth at the weekend, after the FA decided against retrospective action.
“If Eddie is a red card for sure the other is a red card,” Arteta said to Sky Sports directly after the match, cited by the Daily Mail.
‘If we review incidents of that type we review them all. It has to be something equal for everybody because it changes the game for everybody.”
The decision not to punish Vardy will surely provoke another response from Arteta in due course.