Arteta claim Vardy should have been sent off before scoring leveller against Arsenal

London, Wednesday

Arsenal head coach Arteta insisted Vardy should have been dismissed for kicking Shkodran Mustafi in the head as he fell following a first-half challenge between the pair.

Vardy escaped punishment, with the incident seemingly deemed accidental by referee Chris Kavanagh and not reviewed by VAR.

Arteta then saw his own striker, Eddie Nketiah, sent off in the 75th minute for a slightly mistimed challenge on James Justin following a lengthy Stockley Park review and pitchside monitor check from Kavanagh, just four minutes after coming off the bench.

To compound the situation for Arteta and Arsenal Vardy equalised with just six minutes left to cancel out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s first-half opener.

Arteta said: ‘The red card, he [Eddie] cannot see the player and didn’t want to hurt anybody. You have to understand he is a young kid.

‘It can be a red card but Leicester have to play for 10 men after 42 minutes. For one challenge between the 40 and 45 minutes.

‘If we review incidents of that type we review them all. It has to be something equal for everybody because it changes the game for everybody. If Eddie is a red card for sure the other is a red card.’

Rodgers responded, saying: ‘I haven’t seen it [the Vardy incident] to be honest and I didn’t even think about looking at it afterwards.’

On Nketiah’s dismissal, Rodgers said: ‘He was just stretching but it ended up being a horrific challenge. It deserved a red card.

‘It was certainly not intentional but it was dangerous on the stretch. To go in studs up, you see the contact on the knee, the referee made the right decision.’

Arsenal dominated the first half and Arteta said: ‘I’m extremely proud of the team. The way we played, how dominant we were, we should have gone three or four nil up and killed the game. That’s what you have to do when you play good opposition.’

Despite fighting back to salvage a draw, Leicester lost third place to Chelsea though the point took them four points clear of fifth-placed Manchester United.

Rodgers said: ‘We showed enough quality in the second half to win but it could be a very important point.’

After the match, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp said that he can understand why Arteta was frustrated with Vardy not receiving a punishment as both challenges ‘endangered their opponent’.

Meanwhile, Chelsea moved up to third in the Premier League table after holding out to win a 3-2 thriller at Crystal Palace, while Leicester could only manage a draw at 10-man Arsenal on Tuesday.

Frank Lampard’s men edged closer to sealing a place in next season’s Champions League as a seventh win in eight games takes them one point ahead of Leicester and opened up a five-point lead on fifth-placed Manchester United.

The Blues were fortunate when opening the scoring at Selhurst Park as former Chelsea captain Gary Cahill fell to the ground clutching his hamstring to allow Willian to tee up Olivier Giroud for his fourth goal in six games. -AFP