Arsene Wenger believes Konstantinos Mavropanos was wrongly sent off last night in the 3-1 defeat to Leicester, but admits he might have got it wrong by starting the Greek defender so soon after Sunday’s win over Burnley.
Referee Graham Scott deemed the 20 year old to be the last man when he hauled down Kelechi Iheanacho, and although the incident occurred a long way from our goal, the red card was shown.
Speaking afterwards, Wenger hit out at the decision, saying, “I disagree with the red card because Holding would have caught this ball. He was not the last man.”
The January arrival had impressed in his previous two appearances, but it illustrated he still has a bit to learn, something the Arsenal boss acknowledged.
“This boy has 20 top-level games in his legs,” he said. “I believe when games are very close, it takes so much mental energy at the start of your career that it takes sometimes a bit longer to recover.
“Tonight he was a bit surprised by the pace of the game at the start, because he had not completely recovered. I had a long thought about playing him straight away again or not.
“Sometimes you think ‘OK, it’s going well for him, keep him in’. But I don’t think he had recovered.”
It means he’ll be suspended for Sunday’s trip to relegation-safe Huddersfield, with Calum Chambers expected to come back into the side in his place.
Shame, illustrates that it is very hard to come in and be successful match after match at that age. He will learn and improve.
Great manager to be taking the blame himself.
Agreed. Mourinho would have thrown him under his very large parked bus after that.
Why Arsene is so class.
Actually not a bad thing to happen I reckon. Much better to happen in a nothing game like last night than early next season with more riding on it. Hopefully he can learn from it and step up next year.
If I remember correctly then Koscielny got a red card on his debut. I agree that it’s not a bad thing, he can learn and grow as a player from this experience.
Another shit performance.
Another shit result
Another shit season.
Lets hope there are big changes this summer.
Gazidis is not someone you can have much faith in though…
Another shit comment.
hahahahahahah 😉
Can’t think of any big changes happening this summer…..