Arsenal receive new William Saliba red card verdict vs Bournemouth as VAR point made

Arsenal were unlucky not to have William Saliba on the pitch for the whole of their eventual 2-0 defeat to Bournemouth, says former Premier League referee Mark Halsey. The Frenchman was sent off just 30 minutes into the clash after a VAR review.

Initially only handed a yellow card by Rob Jones, Racing back to defend following Leandro Trossad's poor pass, Saliba brought down Evanilson as he went to chase down the ball.

The decision went down poorly with the travelling away fans, who had already seen Declan Rice and Trossard sent off in frustrating fashion this season. It leaves Arsenal having only dropped points in the league in matches they have played partially down to 10 men.

Halsey, reviewing the incident, thinks it could have gone another way. "I had major doubts over William Saliba’s red card and would have stayed with referee Rob Jones’ on-field decision of a caution," he told The Sun.

"The Arsenal defender fouled Bournemouth striker Evanilson For the denial of a goalscoring opportunity, we look at four key criteria. And I had doubts over three of those.

"The distance between the offence and the goal was lengthy, the general direction of play saw the ball coming across Evanilson and not in front of him and also the location and number of defenders was questionable. The likelihood of him keeping or gaining control of the ball would have probably been in the favour of the Cherries forward because David Raya was back-pedalling towards his own goal.

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"PGMOL chiefs Howard Webb was spotted on TV listening into the VAR comms [audio] and that is normal for him to have access — just like the media broadcasters.

football.london understands that although Webb can hear what is being said, he cannot and did not have any impact on the decision made. Speaking afterwards,

"It was a decision made on the pitch,"he said. "That decision was changed. I don’t think it will change twice. The decision has been made."