Arsenal fans were once again left reeling over a referee decision in the Premier League as William Saliba picked up a yellow card in the North London derby.
The 23-year-old centre-back was put in the book by referee Jarred Gillett for delaying the restart after he initially gave away a foul.
Following the foul, the Frenchman collected the ball, so any chance of Tottenham breaking quickly would be eliminated.
This warranted the Australian official to reach for his pocket and book Saliba in the 15th minute, leaving him vulnerable for the remainder of the game.
Arsenal fans were quick to voice their frustrations on social media over the booking, which struck a little too close to home following Declan Rice’s sending off in their last league game for a similar reason.
William Saliba picked up a yellow card in the 15th minute against Tottenham
The Frenchman was booked for delaying the restart similar to Rice’s red card
The incident is very similar to Declan Rice’s when Kavanagh controversially gave Rice his marching orders for delaying the restart against Brighton
Just before the international break the Gunners played out 1-1 draw against the Seagulls however the game was enthralled in controversy.
Kavanagh controversially gave Rice his marching orders for delaying the restart, despite claims that a similar incident involving Joao Pedro had gone unpunished earlier in the game.
Rice picked up a second yellow card for disrupting the restart of play, as the midfielder was seen kicking the ball away in a controversial passage of play involving Joel Veltman, who then kicked out at the 25-year-old.
Speaking following the sending-off the Arsenal Mikel Arteta insisted he was ‘amazed’ at the inconsistency in Kavanagh’s decisions on the day.
‘I was amazed. Amazed, amazed, amazed because of how inconsistent decisions can be. In the first half, there are two incidents and nothing happens.
‘Then, in a non-critical area, the ball hits Declan (on the back of his leg), he turns around, he doesn’t see the player coming and he touches the ball.
Rice picked up a second yellow card for disrupting the restart of play, as the midfielder was seen kicking the ball away in a controversial passage of play involving Joel Veltman
Arsenal fans were quick to hit out on social media following Saliba’s booking..
One fan voiced their frustrations on X as they wrote ‘Am I missing something?
‘Spurs delay the restart and get no punishment despite it being pointed out to the referee. Seconds later Saliba does it and goes straight in the book! It’s laughable.
FA PGMOL are a joke of an organisation. It’s pathetic.’
A second added ‘The double standards are wild. In all the games yesterday, nobody got booked for picking up the ball to delay a restart, but Saliba gets a yellow for doing the same thing because he’s wearing an Arsenal jersey. Ridiculous.’
A third continued the same theme of calling out the official for inconsitency as their post read ‘Saliba gets a card for delaying the restart but Maddison moving the ball past the mark earns nothing. Both delay a restart.’
Whilst a fourth said: ‘Bentacur did the same this afternoon, no card
‘Saliba picks up the ball to delay restart; yellow card’.
