Ian Wright has claimed that Gabriel Magalhaes was ‘crazy’ to get sent off for Arsenal during their 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on New Year’s Day, as he told Match of the Day.
The Highbury legend added that, after Gabriel was shown a second yellow for his foul on Gabriel Jesus, the Arsenal 24-year-old needed to ‘calm down’ as he protested the on-field referee’s call.
In an action-packed and controversial encounter in north London, the Gunners suffered an agonising stoppage-time defeat to the Premier League champions.
But they felt that they should have been awarded a penalty in the first half, before Granit Xhaka was penalised for his foul on Bernardo Silva inside the box in the second half.
That helped Riyad Mahrez level the scores, with Gabriel protesting that penalty call, before being shown his first yellow, and then later on, in an unnecessary fashion, he fouled Jesus on the halfway line for his second yellow.
Wright shared his thoughts on Gabriel’s actions and how he didn’t need to bring down Manchester City’s only recognised striker.
“I am looking when you look at where the Manchester City players are,” said Wright. “Even if he (Jesus) controls it, it’s going to be very difficult for him to set it up for somebody to cause a problem.
“He has made his mind up. Charged into. It’s a crazy foul. He needed to calm down (after he was shown a second yellow). I just think he needed to calm down.”
Whilst a lot of the talk was about the on-field calls during the game and how VAR got x, y and z wrong.
It shouldn’t hide away from the improvements Arsenal have made under Mikel Arteta, who could have been sacked on many occasions last season and during this campaign.
From conceding five at the Etihad last time out to being the better team against Manchester City over the weekend, it has been a huge change from the Gunners.
Now it’s a case of trying to secure those Champions League places because it’s there for the taking given Manchester United’s abject season so far.
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