Arsenal fans have taken to Twitter to react angrily after watching James Tarkowski’s brutal challenge on Richarlison go unpunished last night.
What’s the story?
Firstly, you might be wondering why this has annoyed Arsenal fans.
Well, it comes just weeks after Martin Atkinson sent Granit Xhaka off for a two-footed lunge against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Arsenal eventually lost that game, and Xhaka is still banned.
However, Tarkowski managed to escape a red card after throwing himself at Richarlison in Everton’s 3-1 win over Burnley last night.
The Burnley man’s challenge was much more aggressive than Xhaka’s – somehow, Tarkowski even escaped a yellow card!
Now, you can understand why the Arsenal fans are frustrated with this.
Did Granit Xhaka deserve to get sent off for Arsenal?
In our view, yes. His studs were showing, and it was two-footed.
However, the Arsenal fans still have every right to be furious, due to the lack of consistency on show.
Even more worryingly, Martin Atkinson was the referee on both occasions, so you would expect him to at least remain consistent with his decision making.
Somehow, Atkinson decided that one was a red card, and the other wasn’t, even though the offences were basically the exact same.
In fact, as we previously mentioned, Tarkowski’s was probably worse.
Richarlison easily could’ve broken a leg. In our view, Atkinson should be questioned about his thought process behind both decisions.
We don’t want to watch a league where a referee can’t even maintain a bit of consistency – it’s not even as if the Xhaka incident happened ages ago either.
For now, let’s see what the Arsenal fans on Twitter have been saying about the bizarre 50th minute moment from last night…
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