Crystal Palace will be without captain Luka Milivojevic for the Premier League clash with Arsenal at Selhurst Park, after failing in an appeal against his red card against Derby County last week.
The Serbian midfielder was shown a red card by referee Michael Oliver after he reviewed his original decision following an altercation between Milivojevic and Derby's Tom Huddlestone.
Oliver had initially showed both players a yellow card following a clash between the pair in the FA Cup third round tie, but used the video assistant referee (VAR) to review the decision via the pitchside monitor at Selhurst Park.
He then decided to dismiss the Palace skipper after he judged it to be violent conduct by Milivojevic in appearing to lean his head towards the Derby midfielder.
However, Palace disputed that was the case and appealed against the decision, citing four examples of similar incidents in which players were not shown red cards.
That appeal was not successful though, and Milivojevic will now serve a three-match suspension, starting with the visit of Arsenal, and also including the trip to face Manchester City and a home game against Southampton.
But Palace boss Roy Hodgson has made a surprising comment about the decision, when confirming that the suspension was now in place.
“We tried, we appealed it because we thought it was an unbelievably harsh decision. Even the referee, when I spoke to him after the game, agreed," he said.
"Also he thought it was a harsh decision – I hope he doesn't mind me saying that - but it was a decision he felt he had to take.
"Because there was no particular contact, because it was a spat between the two players who were equally guilty as it were, because Tom Huddlestone, to his credit, made literally nothing of it really.
"From where I was watching, you couldn't see what the major problem was, we thought we had a good case to appeal, but the appeal was turned down."
