Arsenal handed strong VAR and red card warning before Liverpool with referee claim made
Alan Shearer has jokingly warned former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon after he started to suggest VAR and referees would treat his former side differently. Following William Saliba's sending off against Bournemouth on Saturday, the discipline of Mikel Arteta's side has been questioned.
It is the third time already this season that Arsenal have been reduced to 10 men. In all of those matches, the Gunners have gone on to drop points.
At the Vitality Stadium, it was the first time Arsenal had been beaten so far, but the issue of causing themselves problems was a turning point for Arteta. "I don’t know what more we can do when we have to play away from home in this league," he said afterwards.
"It’s hard enough doing it with 11 men, so what we’ve done with 10 I think was quite remarkable." Goals from Cyrus Christie and a Justin Kluivert were too much for Arsenal to overcome. Their record with bookings remains under the microscope, though.
"These things you've got to cut out before they become a thing, but it's almost too late because everybody is on it," Dixon said before their Champions League group phase clash with Shakhtar Donetsk on Tuesday. "We're talking about it at the start of the show.
"Three reds in eight games, people are saying, 'Are they going to get another one?' and that puts pressure on everybody, including - now I'm not saying the referees are going to - but all of a sudden you get an Arsenal game now and you're kind of having a little look at it.
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"Maybe you're a little sharper, VAR is a little bit on it a little bit more. The crowd as well, when the ball goes out, there's a foul and all of a sudden the away team gets a little..." At this stage Dixon was cut off.
Having tried to tread carefully around the notion that Arsenal might be more harshly treated after their run-ins with referees, Alan Shearer chimed in. "You better be careful here, you'll have the PGMOL onto you," he said to Dixon on TNT Sport.
Arteta will be hopeful that his side are not on the receiving end of anymore dismissals as they look to react strongly to a noisy period for the club. He is not planning to make a big deal of things, though, in an attempt to find a resolution.
"The most effective way, I have to be very honest, is not talking about it," he said. "Because we tried and we showed and we talked and we repeated the message that we had to play with 11 and it happened again after a week or after three weeks and they said, ‘guys, let's try something else’. And then it disappeared. So I don't know if it's the right way or not but that's what happened, that's the reality."