Arsene Wenger says that David Luiz will have few complaints about his sending off in the final stages of today’s 0-0 encounter at Stamford Bridge.
The Brazilian defender launched into a shocking challenge on Sead Kolasinac in the 87th minute, having overrun the ball and leaving the Arsenal man writhing in pain.
Thankfully the Bosnian was not as badly hurt as his initial scream suggested, and he was able to continue, but referee Michael Oliver had no hesitation in issuing a red card.
Speaking after the game, the Arsenal manager said, “It was excessive force, yes, and I think Kolasinac was not completely on his feet and eased a bit off.
“I think even Luiz, with a bit of distance, will accept that he went in too strongly. After that, it’s the decision of the referee that you have to accept.
“I haven’t seen it again but it looked to me like it was excessive force.”
Chelsea boss Antonio Conte refused to comment on the sending off itself, but suggested that had the referee awarded Luiz a free kick for a foul by Alexis Sanchez, his player would not have made the challenge.
“David Luiz, you know very well that I don’t like to comment about the referee,” said the Italian.
“I didn’t do this it in the past and I don’t do it in the present. The only thing I can tell is you need to see what happened before the tackle.
Well deserved red. Shame it wasn’t earlier in the match.
I wish it had happened earlier; we’d be 2 points richer most likely.
Last 5 minutes without sideshow Bob, would have loved to have seen us lay siege and launch it into the box a little for Giroud. Felt we didn’t take advantage of it enough.
That could be counter productive, chelseas 10 men still capable of hurting us in the counter, then it could be zero point instead of one point. We got it right, me thinks.
I think the sound of the contact was audible on TV!
On the match itself a good performance, we could have even won it
At first Blogs assumed his jinx backfired.
But soon we were glad that this transpired.
Luiz left Sead for dead
and then Oliver shown red.
Which was exactly the effect we desired.
Gloria Gaynor’s first draft wasn’t well received
back in the champions league
Yes. I saw what happened before Conte. He threw an elbow which is a red in itself.
And shearer and schmeichxl whatever his name focusing on “Koscielny jumping into Luiz’s overhead kick attempt” instead. And how football is a contact game and the two incidents somehow being the fault of the Arsenal players!
Seriously who writes the scripts for those Arsenal hating tw ats?
Should the overhead kick have been a red similar to Mane? I don’t think so but the tackle on Kola certainly was.
They all hate Arsenal on tv, not sure why. Arsenal are usually pretty entertaining in attack and defence.
The ones I don’t understand are the ass-splinter former Arsenal players that are so critical. The others it’s easy to know why they’re so skint. They were outclassed by the best.
That and they need the narrative to follow because they took too many overhead kicks to the head.
if anything it seems we have now chelsea mental block hoodoo as well..now onto manunited away which we always fck up
Keep up.
Funny that we’ve only lost 1 of the last 5 matches we’ve played against them
we have now broken* please dont downvote me
still not the best comment pal – you not remember Wellbeck celebrating scoring against his club at OT in the quarter final of the FA Cup in 2015?
i certainly do. it was 8am in new zealand. smashed out me nut. having a great time. that was the day i got on lad bible with my NECK 0 shirt. bosh.
What did Alexis actually do other than run behind him?
Luiz actually tried to elbow Alexis, slowing his momentum and causing himself to lose the ball and consequently plough into Kolasinac.
That was classic David Luiz. Rotten to the core. Even the commentator here said he seemed to be looking for an opportunity to go in like that.
Even if Conte were right, it’s just crazy logic. If Luiz had slipped and fallen on a banana peel, he never would have gone studs-up into Kolasinac.
Here’s what Arsenal supporters (led by Ozil, Mustafi, and Mertesacker) should sing next time Luiz is around: 7-1, 7-1, 7-1 (repeat).
Didn’t Conte say before the game “I hope we finish with 11 men?”
Maybe if you didn’t coach your players in the dark arts of the game you wouldn’t have one sent off every time they play a superior team like Arsenal (ahem).
Arsenal played really good football and it was great to see them wanting it
If the tackle had been on Sanchez it would have been a serious injury.
On Welbeck a broken leg.
On Wilshere his leg snapped in two.
On Diaby…..RIP.
On Kolasinac….gets up and finishes the match.
The juggernaut is a beast!
If he’d caught Kolasinac’s standing leg then it could have been far worse.
Yes, Kolasinac would probably have got up and beaten six buckets of shit out of him and been sent off for it.
Just following up on the discussion about us not doing well with Michael Oliver as ref from the other day. I thought he got everything right today (even the decisions I was moaning at him for getting wrong through the TV, only to be proven he was right on the replay).
I think it’s telling that generally no Arsenal fan was bothered about him being the referee until our record with him was pointed out. Whereas, everyone hates Mike Dean – it’s not just because we do badly with him as ref, it’s because he’s genuinely biased against us.
Agree, thought the ref had a very good game. Gave decisions on what he saw rather than what he assumed might have happened to make a player hit the deck, as many refs seem to do.
Having said that, the elneny yellow card was harsh.
Agreed all around. I was livid about the Elneny yellow because hazard obviously didn’t even go to the ball at all.
That’s sprobably because Dean’s record with Arsenal has been so bad, and for so long that its so well known.
Few of the refs give us a fair shake (or are pretty crap generally), that Oliver doesn’t stand out as much.
He did have a decent game today and he’s had decent games involving us before, but not always. So although we know he can be a twat occasionally, he’s not a full blown cunt like Dean, Atkinson, or Taylor…
My point being that he isn’t the sole reason we lose if he is refereeing one of our matches. Yes, of course he can make mistakes – everyone does. The difference is that Mike Dean goes out of his way to give decisions against us. I might be reading too much into it, but I genuinely think he has this idea of our players being “conniving foreigners”. As if every time an opposing player goes down it’s because our player has committed a snide, cynical foul and every time one of our players goes down it’s because they’ve dived, trying… Read more »
“I don´t comment on the referee but I comment anyway….” Fuck off you Chelski twat. That was a straight red even if the ref had blown for whatever madeup foul you spotted before. Luiz is a cunt and he is that kind of player so he would have gone in regardless of a signal from the ref.
Good game from Michael Oliver even if he missed a free kick that could have won us the game at the end.
I thought he had an ok game, Moses should have been given a talking too for diving and the elneny yellow is ridiculous considering sideshows tackling.
He also missed a couple of yellows for our wingbacks professional fouls.
He missed Alexis using his arm to control a long pass; I’m not going to moan about that.
Anyone else in our team other than the boy Kolasinac and that’s a fractured leg. Terrible challenge.
Arsene Wenger on the David Luiz red card: “What an absolute twat.”
When he writes his book someday..
thats gonna be a long book
He can just copy-paste all the Abramovich era Chelsea content.
I think the game and red card showed how much better a ref Michael Oliver is compared to his Premier League compatriots. Managed to see the foul despite not being that close to it, acted quickly and defused any potential post red card trouble. How many other refs would have hidden behind the fact players were in his line of sight to avoid getting a red out at home or taken the easy option of given him a second yellow, downplaying the severity? And to think there was an article here worried about our record with him in the middle!… Read more »
Our record with him shocked me to be honest. And totally agree, he did the right and brave thing to go straight red. Sad we have to call that brave.
We seem to get booked for ‘professional’ fouls even deep in our own backline. Glad we had a sensible lineup compared to the Mugsmashers game
What happened before the tackle? Let’s see. No, nothing. So no crime there. The crime was the tackle, however. That’s what he got the red for. And it was the right decision.