Howard Webb has said the referee who was in charge for Arsenal’s loss at Bournemouth, when William Saliba was sent off, made a “clear and obvious error”.
Saliba was shown a red card for denying a goal-scoring opportunity after taking down Evanilson. At first, he was shown a yellow card by match official Rob Jones before VAR intervened and recommended a review of the decision, leading to the dismissal.
Speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up, PGMOL chief Webb said: “I think that the offence committed by William Saliba in this situation did deny Evanilson an obvious goalscoring opportunity. I think the yellow card that was issued by Rob Jones on the field was clearly and obviously wrong.”
Webb defended the initial decision but went on to explain the reasons for the upgrade to a red card.
“There’s two things that VAR can do here to prove that the on-field decision was wrong,” he explained. “Firstly, you can see that Ben White is a long way away. He’s not going to get to Evanlison from that position.
“And then secondly, they can see that David Raya is backing off and when the ball dies in front of Evanilson, even though it’s some distance from goal, he’s going to get on to that ball. He’s going to have time to gain nice control just for the goalkeeper to beat. So, for me, a good intervention by the VAR, a clear and obvious error in not showing a red card on the field.”
The very next day, Tosin Adarabiyo was shown a yellow card for a similar incident in Chelsea’s loss at Liverpool, however there were clear differences according to Webb.
“Colwill has a lot of time to get back from a close position to Jota and undoubtedly would have been able to impact the obviousness of this situation, I think,” he said.
It has been a tense week for Webb and the PGMOL, with David Coote suspended following the leaking of a video in which the referee made derogatory comments about Liverpool and former manager Jurgen Klopp.
