Arsenal had a man sent off for third time this young Premier League season, but was Saturday’s VAR-aided dismissal of William Saliba the right call?
The incident occurred before the half-hour mark of Arsenal’s match at Bournemouth. Evanilson makes a good run to beat the Arsenal back line to Leandro Trossard’s wayward back pass, and Saliba hauls down the Brazilian rather than bid to beat him to the loose ball.
[ MORE: JPW’s recap, updates from Bournemouth vs Arsenal ]
Head referee Rob Jones initially paused before producing a yellow card, but the Video Assistant Referee went right to work.
The footage showed Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya retreating toward his goal line and Ben White a good distance from beating Evanilson to the ball.
[ MORE: Declan Rice, Mikel Arteta on Arsenal’s red cards ]
Jones was sent to the screen and saw this was denial of a clear goal scoring opportunity, and Arsenal were down to 10 men in a scoreless Premier League match at the Vitality Stadium.
What do you think? Was it the right call? Letter of the law, it seems clear as a day. And Arsenal went on to lose 2-0 on England’s south coast.
