David gonna David
Arsenal were reduced to 10 men in the first half of their away trip to Wolves on Tuesday night after David Luiz brought down Willian Jose in the penalty area.
As Wolves’ new signing from Real Sociedad race into the box towards what would have been a certain goalscoring opportunity, Luiz’s knee clipped his ankle, sending the Brazilian tumbling over.
Referee Craig Pawson didn’t hesitate to show Luiz a red card, and the VAR check backed up his decision.
There was subsequently a huge debate on social media about whether Luiz should have been sent off or not, with many Arsenal fans claiming Luiz was treated differently based on his reputation for rash tackles.
Peter Walton pretty explicitly uses this as a reason to send him off in his analysis of the incident on BT. ‘David Luiz has done this before.’ Irrelevant, you judge each incident on its merits.
— Tim Stillman (@Stillmanator) February 2, 2021
David Luiz was sent off for that because he’s David Luiz. Same way Xhaka gets a yellow card for every foul he makes.
— Paddy (@PaddyArsenal) February 2, 2021
Many fans were keen to highlight the recent alteration of the double jeopardy rule regarding fouls that lead to penalties.
The new rule states that if a player commits a foul that denies a goalscoring opportunity in the area, instead of being shown a red card as well as conceding a penalty, they should be cautioned instead.
Peter Walton defended the referee’s decision in the BT Sport studio, but Arsenal fans weren’t having it.
https://twitter.com/DomC0801/status/1356679640509804544
Ruben Neves scored the penalty to level the scoring after Nicolas Pepe’s opener, and Joao Moutinho put the home side in front with a stunning long range effort at the beginning of the second half.
To make matters worse, Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno was sent off after 72 minutes, leaving Mike Arteta’s side to finish out the game with nine men.
The Gunners could not find an equaliser and slipped to their ninth league defeat of the season.
