 Mikel Arteta has criticised the refereeing in Arsenal's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Monday night after Takehiro Tomiyasu was sent off for two soft yellow cards and is concerned by the way time-wasting is being punished. Arsenal news, exclusives and analysis Sign up Privacy Policy Arsenal controlled the contest for over an hour and had two excellent chances to open the scoring in the first half but Eddie Nketiah hit the post with the first and then dinked the ball over the bar from six yards out with the other. The Gunners took a deserved lead from the penalty spot when Nketiah touched the ball past Sam Johnstone and was brought down, with skipper Martin Odegaard calmly slotting the ball into the bottom left corner. But the game changed in controversial fashion in the 67th minute when Tomiyasu was shown two yellow cards in the space of just a few minutes. The first was for time-wasting – though team-mate Kai Havertz seemed to be the bigger culprit during the incident – while the second initially appeared to be for a tug of Andre Ayew's shirt, though replays suggested there was minimal, if any, contact. Unfortunately for Arsenal, second yellow cards cannot be checked by VAR and Tomiyasu was given his marching orders with the north Londoners forced to defend with 10 men for the rest of the contest. Arteta clearly felt the officiating at Selhurst Park was rather heavy-handed and suggested the 'new rules' had been introduced on the fly and were different from what had been explained to teams before the season started. Asked if understood why the first yellow card for Tomiyasu was given, a clearly annoyed Arteta told Sky Sports bluntly: 'I'm a really open person, I understand everything.' Arsenal were not happy with Tomiyasu's harsh sending off (Picture: Reuters) Probed on how frustrating the application of the new time-wasting rules are, the Arsenal boss replied: 'The new rules is o){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
Mikel Arteta has criticised the refereeing in Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Monday night after Takehiro Tomiyasu was sent off for two soft yellow cards and is concerned by the way time-wasting is being punished.
Arsenal news, exclusives and analysis
Arsenal controlled the contest for over an hour and had two excellent chances to open the scoring in the first half but Eddie Nketiah hit the post with the first and then dinked the ball over the bar from six yards out with the other.
The Gunners took a deserved lead from the penalty spot when Nketiah touched the ball past Sam Johnstone and was brought down, with skipper Martin Odegaard calmly slotting the ball into the bottom left corner.