Arsenal appeal red card using Manchester United incident as evidence | OneFootball

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Arsenal plan to use Bruno Fernandes’ red-card overturn in their appeal against Myles Lewis-Skelly’s three-game suspension, according to a report.

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Sami Mokbel reports for the Daily Mail that Arsenal are expected to use footage of Bruno Fernandes’ overturned red card earlier this season as part of their appeal against Myles Lewis-Skelly’s sending off against Wolves.

The deadline for Arsenal to confirm their intent to appeal was lunchtime on Monday, and the Gunners had until 13:00 GMT on Tuesday to make their full submission to the FA. They have now done this. The appeal will now be reviewed by an independent panel, including former players.

Fernandes’ red-card incident is set to be a key part of that submission, according to Mokbel’s report.

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Like Lewis-Skelly, Fernandes was dismissed because he was viewed to have committed a serious foul play offence by catching a player whilst trying to prevent a counter-attack. But the contact was minimal, and the red card was overturned on appeal.

Arsenal would be wise to include Joao Gomes’ yellow-card foul from the same game as well, with Gomes only receiving a booking despite heavy contact from his studs on Jurrien Timber’s leg. It was lucky for the Gunners that Gomes was already on a yellow at the time.

Arsenal at least appear to have the support of most ex-players and pundits, with many agreeing that a red card was the wrong decision.

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The latest to agree that a yellow card would have been a better call is Dale Johnson of ESPN, who writes that “there are clear grounds for the VAR to intervene and downgrade to a yellow card” and it “should have been downgraded to yellow on review”.