Arsenal star ‘lucky’ to escape red card as he slams ‘chaotic’ Gunners pair in Brighton draw
Arsenal midfielder Jorginho was “lucky” to escape a red card as the Gunners were held to a 1-1 draw against Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday, according to Jamie Redknapp.
Mikel Arteta’s side went ahead through a Ethan Nwaneri strike which crept under Seagulls goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen on 16 minutes.
But Arsenal were pegged back on 61 minutes when Joao Pedro converted a spot-kick after the Brazilian had clashed heads with Arsenal defender William Saliba.
Arteta and his players were furious that Antony Taylor gave the penalty, which cost Arsenal three points, with slow-motion footage showing Saliba touched the ball during the incident.
As the penalty was being taken by Pedro, Jorginho was seen kicking out at Brighton defender Joel Veltman but stayed on the pitch after not making contact with the Dutchman.
And former Premier League midfielder Redknapp insists Arsenal star Jorginho was “lucky” to avoid a sending off, which could have been given on another day after being reviewed by VAR.
Redknapp said on Sky Sports: “Jorginho was quite lucky here because if he catches him he could have been in trouble and got a red card.”
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The ex-Liverpool and Tottenham midfielder believes that the Brighton penalty was completely avoidable and pointed the finger at Arsenal duo Saliba and Gabriel for not showing the “calmness” needed.
Redknapp added: “When I always think about Gabriel and Saliba I always think of a calmness but as this unfolds there’s a little bit of chaos to their defending. Gabriel gets himself in a mess as he’s embroiled with [Yankuba] Minteh. Minteh wins the ball, it’s rash, he’s all over the place.
“Then you can [see] Saliba faces him up and gets in a muddle. Then it’s just [a] reaction – he sticks his head out trying to win the ball. It’s chaotic and it’s not normally what we associate with them. Is it a penalty? I think absolutely. He definitely knocks him to the floor. It was enough to send him down and it was the right decision.”
Speaking about the penalty decision and their overall performance, Arsenal boss Arteta said: “I’ve never seen a decision like this in my career. I asked the boys, and they have never seen anything like it.
“I’m disappointed because we wanted to win the game. We started the game with good actions and a good goal. We knew it was going to be a challenging game.
“We gave too many balls away in the second half and we’re very disappointed with the penalty. I’ve never seen that in my life – and Saliba touches the ball. [It wasn’t one] for me, no.
“We’re playing every three days. I understand how much we want to [win], but in terms of the quality and the consistency and doing the simple things right against a competitive team, we didn’t do enough today.”
