Former Premier League ref says red card for Arsenal’s Martinelli was harsh

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It has to be one of the strangest red cards ever seen in the Premier League.

Arsenal star, Gabriel Martinelli, certainly did himself no favours with his actions at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Thursday night.

It seemed fairly obvious that the youngster was unhappy about not being awarded a foul before pushing Daniel Podence over at a throw in, before taking out Chiquinho as he bore down on goal.

Luckily for Mikel Arteta, it didn’t affect the outcome of the result, but had it done so, the Spaniard would’ve been well within in his rights to point the finger of blame at Martinelli.

There’s no doubting his skill set, but the exuberance of youth needs to be reigned in a little at times.

Former Premier League official, Mark Halsey, believes that the player was a little unlucky in the sense that his red was harsh.

“Gabriel Martinelli’s quick-fire red card at Wolves was harsh,” he told CaughtOffside.

“The Arsenal forward was initially cautioned for pushing Daniel Podence as he was taking a throw-in.

“Then five seconds later Martinelli fouled Wolves winger Chiquinho thus denying him a promising attack.

“Referee, Michael Oliver, was correct in law to issue two cautions at the same time for two offences, but I believe he should have managed the incidents better than he did for a referee of his caliber.

Former Premier League and FIFA referee Mark Halsey is a columnist for CaughtOffside.com

“If Oliver wanted to caution Martinelli for the first offence he should have stopped the game as the offence occurred.”

What’s a real shame is that, after what was an entertaining game, all of the talk will be about that one incident, and perhaps Oliver’s performance as a result.

When undoubtedly the best referee that the Premier League has to offer is getting it wrong, then there really is a reason to worry.

PGMOL are under enough pressure as it is, and they’ll not welcome the extra scrutiny involved after this latest incident.

More Stories Chiquinho daniel podence Gabriel Martinelli Mark Halsey Michael Oliver

7 Comments

  1. Martinelli pushed Podence who fell over rolling around screaming like a little girl in typical Wolverhampton fashion. It is a case of same old wanderers always cheating. Men against girls.

    Another case of poor refereeing. Why are English referees so F*****G useless ???

    1. The English governing body of FA must scrutinized reference. And why VAR doesn’t assist rightly when Arsenal play. Silly mistakes of Referrers have caused Arsenal a lot these season , especially in January to February. Notable incident when Saka was forced to injury by cleaned foul at the box no yellow card, no penality and VAR could not check that. I am thinking VAR and officiating of games is not corrupted.

  2. So let’s break this down.
    The first incident was stupid and petulant and was a yellow card offence. When the referee waved play on, Martinelli has no idea he is on a yellow. Otherwise he would not have bumped into the boy who did nothing but foul the minute he came on. All unpunished. That second foul was a foul. Yellow? No. Oliver, in truth, was peeved with the way Arsenal were spoiling. Wolves were surrounding and hounding the ref at every single incident. The crowd were screaming and the ref buckled.
    As for the goal, if it hadn’t been a goal, it was a penalty to Arsenal. Sarr wiped out Laca for goodness sake. Why no mention?
    Thank goodness the result favoured Arsenal.

  3. But doesn’t the new rule state that if a team wants to gain an advantage by taking a quick restart, then the yellow card cannot be given.

  4. The English governing body of FA must scrutinized reference. And why VAR doesn’t assist rightly when Arsenal play. Silly mistakes of Referrers have caused Arsenal a lot these season , especially in January to February. Notable incident when Saka was forced to injury by cleaned foul at the box no yellow card, no penality and VAR could not check that. I am thinking VAR and officiating of games is not corrupted.

  5. I think both fouls by Martinelli were yellow card offence. But referee should have stop the game and let player know for first foul. Then continue the game. So the player knows has a yc offence. Or the referee gives advantage to the other team and gives yc in total offences later on. It was bad judgment by referee. One believe these top referees at least must know the rules. This was not a mistake by referee but lack of knowledge .

  6. Referees wether behind VR are same just in different forests as none will want see arsenal prevail.This is not the first time ,but it all start with Wenger when he was dominating,they hated it.They are the one behind to frustrate arsenal players ,coach and the fans .They make sure that it’s better for another team to take premier league and not arsenal like they did by frustrating arsenal to allow Leicester who had not beaten arsenal home and away to take the league putting arsenal second.

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