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Arsenal: Morgan Gibbs-White lucky to avoid red card after poor tackle on Granit Xhaka

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Image for Arsenal: Morgan Gibbs-White lucky to avoid red card after poor tackle on Granit Xhaka

Footage from Arsenal’s win this weekend suggests that opposition player Morgan Gibbs-White may well have been lucky to avoid a straight red card. 

In the latest round of Premier League fixtures, the Gunners managed to keep themselves top of the division for another week with a fine performance in front of their fans.

Goals from Gabriel Martinelli, Thomas Partey, Martin Odegaard and a double from Reiss Nelson gave Arsenal a comprehensive 5-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the Emirates Stadium.

And while the game was easily won, it could have been made even simpler had the referee or VAR opted to send Gibbs-White off after he put in a crunching tackle on Granit Xhaka.

Indeed, footage shared online shows the Forest man sliding in with real force and catching the Swiss midfielder on his ankle.

Xhaka fouled in possible red card

TIF Thoughts on the incident and Arsenal…

In the end, Gibbs-White was only handed a yellow card by referee Simon Hooper, while VAR felt it wasn’t a bad enough challenge to intervene and upgrade it to a red.

However, seeing as the midfielder came in with such force and his studs were raised, making contact with Xhaka at ankle level, he is fairly lucky no further punishment was handed out.

Do you think it should have been a red card?

Yes

Yes

No

No

Incidentally, the Arsenal man was sent off for a similar challenge last season against Manchester City when he put in a dangerous foul on Joao Cancelo. At the time, the Switzerland international claimed that was harsh, so maybe he would have been disappointed not to see the same standards applied to Gibbs-White on this occasion.

Fortunately, Xhaka was able to continue and the Gunners got on just fine as they picked up another three points.
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