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Gary Neville shares what Stockley Park said about Jurrien Timber’s tackle in North London derby as Arsenal star escapes red card
A fiery North London derby threatened to boil over during the first-half at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, particularly when Jurrien Timber made a challenge on Pedro Porro which resulted in the Arsenal star receiving a yellow card.
A remarkable seven yellow cards were dished out before the break, with Tottenham Hotspur seeing five of their players booked by Jarred Gillett. But perhaps the most contentious decision came after Jurrien Timber came away with the ball after challenging Pedro Porro.
It very quickly became apparent that the Spurs players were furious with the challenge, with Guglielmo Vicario🎉 immediately clashing with the Dutchman and sparking angry scenes involving most of the players.
🌸Porro remained down for some time. Once the situation calmed down, Timber was shown a yellow card, with Vicario also booked for his part. Unsurprisingly, the VAR decided to have another look at the incident to see whether Timber, or anyone else, needed further punishment.
Why Jurrien Timber was not sent off against Tottenham
Timber initially put his foot on the ball in the challenge, but then made contact with Porro. Gary Neville noted that the challenge reminded him of one which saw ꦰCurtis Jones sent off against Tottenham last season♓. Unlike Jones however, Timber did remain on the pitch.
𒅌And speaking on Sky Sports (broadcast on 15/9; 14:38), Neville shared what the reason was for not upgrading the card to red.
𒉰“Just hearing what has been fed into the VAR at Stockley Park. They said Timber puts his foot on the ball and it doesn’t roll over, which is what saved it from being a red card,” he said.
The right decision… once again
While Arsenal fans arguably little right to complain about the decision to send Declan Rice𓄧 off against Brighton, they would have had every reason to be absolutely livid if Timber had been dismissed for the challenge alone.
🔯Perhaps it had the potential to be a nasty challenge, but Timber did not catch Porro in the same way Jones had caught Yves Bissouma last year.
ꩲIf there was any reason to complain, it was perhaps the fact that he decided to grab Vicario as the goalkeeper approached him. That could have arguably been a second yellow given what followed.
🦩But it certainly appears that the officials made the right call on the challenge itself.