London Arsenal football player Gabriel Martinelli will be remembered for a long time by the fans after the match of the 24th round of the English Premier League against Wolverhampton.
Until the 69th minute of the meeting, the game was more or less calm, with the exception of the Gunners' only goal against the Wolves after a corner. The 20-year-old Brazilian Martinelli decided to add bright colors to the insipid meeting.
Note: in the review of the match Wolverhampton – Arsenal video with Martinelli's fouls from 1:23.
He managed to foul twice in five seconds and earned two yellow cards, respectively, which automatically turned into red.
First, the striker on someone else's half of the field pushed away Daniel Podense's hand while throwing the ball from out. But the main referee of the match, Michael Oliver, decided to continue the game so as not to stop the Wolverhampton attack. Broadcast footage captured this moment at 69:04 match time.
And exactly five seconds later, Martinelli in a sprint dash to the defense demolished the Portuguese winger Tavares. The referee of the match immediately showed the Brazilian two cards: for a delayed foul on Podensa and for pushing Tavares.
Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta said he had never seen such a send-off before.
“I've never seen anything like it. I spent 18 years in this country, and this has never happened before. We have made it very difficult for ourselves, remaining in the minority. We have suffered for the last ten minutes. I've never seen anything like it,” the coach told the BBC.
In 2022, the London club have terrible statistics: in six matches they have four removals and only two goals scored. Before Martinelli, Gabriel Paulista, Granit Xhaka and Tomas Party received red cards.
After 24 rounds of the Premier League, Arsenal are fifth in the standings with 39 points. At the same time, Arteta's men have two more games in hand. Manchester City remain top of the league with 24 games, 60 points, Liverpool are second with 23 games, 51 points, and Chelsea round the top three with 24 games, 47 points.
