Did Gabriel let Arsenal down with his red card against Man City?

Despite Arsenal being the superior side in their defeat to Manchester City, the game swung on a mad four minute spell. From being in the ascendency and a goal to the good, the Gunners were level pegging and down to ten men.

Granit Xhaka’s penalty incident will be argued until the cows come home. Bernardo Silva undoubtedly dived under minimal contact and the extravagance of his fall makes the decision tougher to swallow.

He left a leg out, though, and then clutched at his shirt while he was going down. Whether it was a penalty or not, in the modern age where spot-kicks are rewards for initiating contact, what Xhaka did opened the door for interpretation. There was no need to grab his shirt.

Not checking the monitor for Martin Odegaard’s, however, is a head scratcher.

Did Gabriel let Arsenal down with his red card in the 2-1 Premier League defeat to Manchester City?

Barely seconds after Riyad Mahrez levelled matters with that penalty, Gabriel Martinelli was presented with a open goal to put Arsenal back in front. Stuart Atwell did his best to block the shot with a ridiculous run into the box when goal-line technology is there to do his job for him, but Martinelli shouldn’t have missed.

And then, from the resulting goal-kick, Gabriel got himself sent off.

His namesake comes to the ball and controls it with his chest to spring beyond the defender. Gabriel puts his arms up and prevents him from doing so. The foul is up on the halfway line and there are bodies around to pick up the second ball, but it is a clear ‘professional foul’ and when you’re already on a yellow card you need to read the room.

As for his first booking, Albert Stuivenberg stated it was due to dissent for the penalty. How warranted that was we won’t know. But he was cautioned at this point nonetheless.

Atwell was booking Arsenal players for minor indiscretions and while it was Gabriel’s first foul, not in a threatening position and the referee could and probably should have given him a talking to keep the game flowing at 11v11, it was an error of judgement from the centre-back.

While Xhaka’s ‘Xhaka’ moment and Martinelli’s miss will be highlighted as other pivotal moments, they don’t determine the outcome of the game. Red cards, especially against a side of Manchester City’s quality, almost always do.

On the topic of whether Gabriel let Arsenal down, what he did do was make a mistake. Humans tend to. But the reason he is so loved by supporters and has been in such excellent form is because that is exactly the kind of defender he is. So, he did let the team down, but you have to take the rough with the smooth. When it becomes a problem is if the rough never smooths out.

Gabriel is a touch tight, front-footed and aggressive player. That is his style. It’s archetypal modern defending that is proactive with and without the ball. This season he’s cleaned up his game considerably, eliminating much of the rashness he had when he first came into the league, primarily due to his greater reading of the play and adjustment to the speed.

This was a blotch on the strides he’s taken. Will it be the last one? Never. If as fans we want to see this brand of football played with these profiles of players, then incidents like his red card on Jesus are a byproduct of that. He can absolutely improve in that department, like he has this term, but it may never be fully eradicated.

Still relatively young as far as central defenders go, while his error isn’t entirely excused, for the other 59 minutes of the match he was exceptional alongside the equally superb Benjamin White. His age means there is plenty more room for reflection and development on incidents like this double yellow. It’s harder to improve the tactical and quality aspect than it is to iron out indecision.

A red card was going to arrive sooner or later, it is just a real shame it came at this moment against the best team in the Premier League with him seeming to forget he even had a yellow card in the first place.