Enzo Maresca complained of inconsistent refereeing after Moisés Caicedo was sent off for Chelsea and Arsenal’s Piero Hincapié escaped a potential red card during a bruising 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Although Maresca accepted that Caicedo deserved to see red for a dreadful tackle on Mikel Merino midway through the first half, the Italian still cried foul. The head coach cited Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentancur not being sent off for a poor tackle against Chelsea at the start of November and he was similarly bullish when told about Reece James arguing that Arsenal should have been reduced to 10 men when Hincapié left Trevoh Chalobah with a black eye during an aerial duel.
“I think Reece is right,” Maresca said. “But they decide. He asked me about Moi’s red card. It’s a red card, but why was Bentancur’s against Reece not a red card when we were at Spurs away? As a manager, we struggle to understand why they judge in different way. Moi’s is red card, yes. Bentancur’s is a red card, yes. Why they don’t give him a red card?
“We struggle to understand. The reality is that it’s red card. But why they judge in different way? The Trevoh one, I asked the referee, he said to me that it was not an elbow. So, this is what they said. [He had a] black eye, with ice at half-time. But they judge in different way.”
Maresca was pleased with his side’s performance after they lost Caicedo, who is set to miss games against Leeds, Bournemouth and Everton. However, they were unable to cut Arsenal’s lead at the top to three points after going 1-0 up thanks to Chalobah. Merino equalised for the visitors and was relieved not to have sustained a serious injury when he was caught by the Chelsea midfielder.
“I felt my ankle go all the way but luckily I have very mobile ankles,” the Arsenal player said. “I knew it was a horrible challenge and it was going to be a red card.”
Mikel Arteta admitted that Arsenal, who were without the injured Gabriel Magalhães and William Saliba in central defence, did not capitalise on their numerical advantage. Part of that, Arsenal’s manager said, was down to Chelsea trying to get his players sent off after Caicedo’s exit.
“Obviously we wanted to settle the game,” Arteta said. “We didn’t manage to do that. We had more yellow cards. Those players were constantly targeted to try to even the game in terms of numbers.”
