Lee Dixon slammed Gabriel Magalhães for his ‘stupid’ sending off during Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday, as he told Premier League Productions (01/01/22 at 2:45 pm).
The Highbury legend added that there was ’no doubt’ that the 24-year-old Arsenal defender deserved to be shown a second yellow card during the controversial encounter at the Emirates.
Not only did the home side concede a stoppage-time goal to lose the game, but there were also a number of questionable decisions made by the on-field referee and VAR during the game.
One of the yellow cards Gabriel picked up was for dissent after Bernardo Silva won a penalty for his side in the second half, although the Arsenal players felt that he went down very easily after a challenge from Granit Xhaka.
But what frustrated Dixon the most was Gabriel’s actions to pick up his second yellow and his ‘silly’ challenge on Gabriel Jesus on the halfway line.
“When you are on a yellow,” said Dixon. “You can’t do that. He is on the halfway line and he has men behind him.
‘Jesus does a little trick on him. But you can let him have the ball on his chest, he’s not going anywhere. That’s rash and a second yellow card, no doubt about that.
“The second one was silly. And that one was a bit stupid as well. Now you have gone down to ten against a brilliant Man City side, even if they weren’t playing well. You are going to be under it.”
Mikel Arteta would have been raging at home because of the incidents that unfolded yesterday.
After getting outclassed by the Premier League champions earlier on in the season, it was a different story this time around.
If anything, it was the north London club that deserved to walk away with three points, never mind empty-handed.
But instead, it was a morale-sapping defeat against a team that is probably going to go on and defend their Premier League crown once again.
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