Arsenal fans outraged by Bukayo Saka’s treatment against Aston Villa

Arse­nal fans are out­raged by the ref­er­ee’s treat­ment of Bukayo Saka in the Pre­mier League clash with Aston Villa.

Eng­land inter­na­tion­al Saka had a heat­ed bat­tle with Alex Moreno, with the Span­ish defend­er sent off in the clos­ing min­utes. The Arse­nal play­er was clear­ly annoyed by ref­er­ee Simon Hoop­er’s deci­sion and his reac­tion was noticed by the home fans and booed by some of the Vil­la supporters.

But, as has always been the case this sea­son, Saka still had time to play dan­ger­ous­ly close to the end of the game. A Mar­tinez own goal in stop­page time, fol­lowed by Gabriel Mar­tinel­li’s effort, gave Arse­nal a dra­mat­ic sec­ond-half victory.

Vil­la had twice tak­en the lead with goals from Olly Watkins and Philippe Coutin­ho. How­ev­er, it was the vis­i­tors who equal­ized in the sixth minute of stop­page time with goals from Saka and Olek­san­dr Zinchenko.

Some Gun­ners fans believe Saka has been tar­get­ed by oppos­ing defend­ers mul­ti­ple times this sea­son. Judg­ing by the reac­tion on social media, the match at Vil­la Park was no exception.

“Ref­er­ees and play­ers attack Saka every week and the Pre­mier League allows it,” wrote one fan on Twit­ter. “My heart aches because Bukayo is sim­ply the nicest per­son alive.”

“You almost have to com­mend the col­lec­tive per­se­ver­ance and ded­i­ca­tion Eng­lish foot­ball has shown to ensure that Bukay­oza­ka’s career is ulti­mate­ly ham­pered by injuries,” wrote anoth­er. will not be the last time they are tar­get­ed and kicked out.

Oth­ers cit­ed Wil­fried Zaha’s pre­vi­ous com­ments about how fouls were not pun­ished severe­ly and play­ers were injured as a result. “All I want to do is play foot­ball as long as possible.

It may seem like I’m com­plain­ing all the time, but at the end of the game only me, my team and the doc­tor will see my cut. ‘, the Crys­tal Palace star told talk­SPORT in 2020.

“It’s up to the ref­er­ee to judge the game. Last sea­son I had the longest injury I’ve ever had in both my knees. I don’t want to miss out like that.”

Saka, mean­while, was sent off after a string of heavy tack­les dur­ing Arse­nal’s game against Not­ting­ham For­est in Octo­ber. “The ref­er­ee has a duty to deal with it,” Gun­ners boss Mikel Arte­ta said in November.

“The bet­ter a play­er is, the more like­ly they are to be tar­get­ed because they will try to find a way to stop it.

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