It was an ill-tempered game, with a record number of cautions. Surprisingly, no player received a second yellow card.
Arsenal secured all three points in the fixture, but it was not an easy win, and Jurrien Timber was in terrific form.
He played as a left-back and performed brilliantly, covering the pitch from end to end. He wasn’t afraid to dive into tackles.
In one passage of play, he seemed to foul Porro, and the Spaniard exaggerated the impact of the unintentional kick.
This sparked a minor melee, with tensions nearly boiling over, but the referee quickly regained control and issued Timber only a yellow card.
Some pundits have argued that Timber deserved to be sent off and was fortunate to stay on the pitch, but former referee Mark Halsey explained that Jarred Gillett opted not to send him off because he wanted to play it safe.
He said, as quoted by The Sun:
“The temperature was rising, the game was reaching boiling point.
“I think perhaps the referee just took the safe bet and issued a yellow card for a reckless challenge.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Gillett is an experienced official who made a good call to keep the game flowing well.
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Timber’s foot rolled over the ball and then onto the players leg, if his foot had landed directly on the players leg it would have been different.
So, therefore I make the referee correct in his decision.
A good decision by the ref in my opinion; nothing malicious in his intent, and nothing close to a red card as some pundits have suggested.
I agree with the yellow, because the game was getting very physical, and the ref made a great decision by carding both teams, so there would be no confusion as to how he would officiate.
Would be nice if he got more praise for how he officiated the game, because many are quick to maul a ref when things don’t go our way.
Agree, but seen them given all the same. At least this will go towards helping to stop the conspiracy theories about all refs being against us.
It wasn’t even a yellow . His foot just slipped on the ball. Yellow was given under pressure from home team & fans
I thought the ref was far too trigger-happy I think the only yellows were the ones that stopped players from entering a dangerous situation while running into space and away from their marker And I don’t think Timber deserved yellow for putting his foot on top of the ball the other guy didn’t even get hit