Antonio Conte: Emerson Royal’s red card against Arsenal ‘killed’ Tottenham’s game

Antonio Conte believes Emerson Royal’s red card in Saturday’s north London derby defeat “killed the game” and says the standard of Premier League officiating must be improved to match the quality of the competition.

Spurs full-back Emerson was sent-off midway through the second half for what initially looked only a clumsy late challenge on Gabriel Martinelli, though replays showed he had caught the winger high on the outside of the ankle.

At that point, Spurs trailed 2-1 but before Conte had reacted to going down to ten men Granit Xhaka had extended Arsenal’s lead and while the Italian repeatedly refused to give his opinion on whether the sending off was correct, he insisted the incident was the game’s pivotal moment.

It was difficult after the red card because in the starting XI we played with three strikers,” Conte said. “Then, also, Perisic is an offensive winger. When you remain with ten men and you’re 2-1 down, you have to cut strikers to try to find the best balance with ten men.

“In this period, they scored a goal before we made the substitutions and it was really difficult.

“The red card killed the game, not because we had ten men, but because the team we had was really offensive and in that four or five minutes it took to make the substitutions the team was really offensive, it was difficult to defend and we conceded the goal.”

Referee Anthony Taylor was not asked by VAR to review his decision on the pitch side monitor after brandishing the red card and while Conte again refused to criticise the call itself, pleaded for greater consistency and an improvement in refereeing standards across the board.

“In England, I have to be honest, it’s very difficult because they don’t have the same line,” Conte added. “Sometimes you see situations that could be a red card and instead it’s a yellow card or no card. Then sometimes you see situations that may be a yellow card and instead it’s a red card. They have to work, I think, a lot on this.

“In Italy, for example, they go on Thursday and stay together for three days to look at video, to try to improve. I don’t know if this happens in England but it could be a good idea because the level [of football] is so high and we need to have the level of the referees and the VAR in the same level. The Premier League is a really high level and every part of this situation has to be top.”