Aston Villa vs Arsenal

[DazN]

Not solely related to this game, but it happened again in this match and it was on my mind so why not....

At the 62' mark, Saka gets fouled and is rolling around on the deck when the referee blows up. Villa's Douglas Luiz who by now has the ball then shoots downfield towards the goal and earns himself a YC for kicking the ball away, presumably for delaying the restart as if didn't look to be kicked away in anger / dissent.

So my question is this:

Much like a YC cannot be given for SPA if advantage is played and the promising attack continues... If play cannot be restarted due to an injured player being down, is a YC for 'delaying the restart' still applicable? I think I know the answer, but it's been bugging me.

Interestingly, later in the game, Saka himself kicked the ball away in anger after running it out of play and no YC was produced. Was this down to the fact that his team were losing at the time and so delaying the restart had no advantage or just a mistake from the Ref?

 

[Russell Jones]

Until or unless the referee has decided that the injury is serious and stopped play, then the game is still 'live' and a caution for DTR remains a valid option ... we've all seen situations where attacking teams have played on despite one of their team mates lying on the ground. Once the referee has blown their whistle and summoned the trainer it would no longer be reasonable

On your latter point, PGMOL referees are less likely to caution for DTR if the team involved is losing. That said, it has been clarified that cautions are still possible in this situation, especially if there is a 'tactical' nature to the ball being kicked away ... ie it negates the opportunity for the other team to continue / start a promising attack.

 

[Mooseybaby]

Guess yellow cards for adopting an aggressive attitude are no longer a thing, can be the only explanation for Havertz escaping without a card after his disallowed goal behaviour, then causing another flair up and confrontation when he ran into Martinez.

 

[DazN]

Until or unless the referee has decided that the injury is serious and stopped play, then the game is still 'live' and a caution for DTR remains a valid option ... we've all seen situations where attacking teams have played on despite one of their team mates lying on the ground. Once the referee has blown their whistle and summoned the trainer it would no longer be reasonable

On your latter point, PGMOL referees are less likely to caution for DTR if the team involved is losing. That said, it has been clarified that cautions are still possible in this situation, especially if there is a 'tactical' nature to the ball being kicked away ... ie it negates the opportunity for the other team to continue / start a promising attack.

I suspected as much as a quick free kick was still technically possible.

It makes me smile at times when players are waving imaginary cards and clamouring for cautions for an opposition player delaying the game, whilst their team mate is rolling around ‘injured’ also delaying the game.

 

[SammyT5]

I think whilst you could make an argument that such an act isn’t delaying the restart, the game has come to expect cautions for ‘kicking the ball away’. I think the reason Saka wasn’t cautioned is because a goal kick had been awarded anyway, and as he kicked it towards the goal a reasonable argument could be made that he was just kicking the ball to the goalkeeper for the goal kick.

 

[socal lurker]

Guess yellow cards for adopting an aggressive attitude are no longer a thing, can be the only explanation for Havertz escaping without a card after his disallowed goal behaviour, then causing another flair up and confrontation when he ran into Martinez.

Well, there is no such thing in the LOTG, per se . . . AA is a variety of unspecified USB that happens to be listed separately (as I understand it ) on UK reporting systems for tracking. But I think pro refs are far slower to give general USB cards than in grass roots games.