Arsenal got back to winning ways in the Premier League as they edged to a 2-1 victory at home to Sheffield United.
Goals from Bukayo Saka and Nicolas Pepe helped seal the win but the Blades and Sky Sports pundits Graeme Souness and Patrice Evra believe the Gunners should have been down to ten men early on.
Referee Lee Mason was given a decision to make with just five minutes on the clock as David Luiz pulled Oliver Burke’s shirt after losing control of the ball.
The shirt pulls undoubtedly affected Burke’s ability to win the 50-50 against Gunners keeper Bernd Leno, which the German won.
The Sheffield United players pleaded with the referee to dismiss Luiz but the man in the middle was unmoved. The Brazilian didn’t even get a yellow card for his troubles.
It was goalless at half time but a quick-fire double from Arsenal took the game away from the visitors. First, Saka headed home as he got on the end of Hector Bellerin’s cross after lovely one-touch football from Mikel Arteta’s men.
It was 2-0 on 64 minutes as Pepe collected a pass from Bellerin before sliding the ball in off the post. David McGoldrick pulled one back with a lovely left-footed curling effort but they couldn’t find an equalizer.
The game could have been so different though. Luiz’s dodgy touch gave Burke the chance to bear down on goal but Leno beat him to it after the Scotland international was clearly pulled back.
A free-kick was given but no red card for Luiz saw Chris Wilder being quoted labelling the call as‘f****** b*******’and Souness concurred with the Sheffield United boss, albeit in a much calmer way.
Souness said: “It’s a sending off. He’s pulled his shirt. The question to be asked here is how much has he taken the pace off Ollie Burke running for the ball?
“If he doesn’t pull his shirt he’s at least a metre further on… he may have got there in enough time to tuck it round Leno and roll it into an empty net.”
Meanwhile, Evra also believes Luiz was lucky to escape a red card, claiming the Arsenal man was denying Burke a clear goalscoring opportunity.
The former Manchester United man also suggested that the referee didn’t want to make a big decision.
Evra said: “If I was Sheffield United manager I would be furious. I don’t like when players dive, don’t get me wrong, but this is a sending off.
“You can see they [the Sheffield United players] tell the referee, but he’s like ‘guys, it’s Sunday, give me peace.’”
