Arsenal football club legend and football pundit, Ian Wright felt Edinson Cavani was 'very lucky' not to receive a red card after a spat with Aaron Ramsey in the 2-2 result at the Emirates. Cavani tried to delay Arsenal from taking a spot kick in their group A clash in the Champions League by holding the ball with him for a while.
Ramsey then approached the PSG striker and retrieved the ball, tired of the 29-year old’s behaviour. But things turned ugly as the Welshman received a blow to his chest by Cavani. Ian Wright felt that the Uruguayan was a very lucky man not to be sent off by the referee as the incident looked serious.
“Cavani has taken the ball to bide time, maybe put a bit more pressure on Giroud and I think he's very lucky,” he said. “To throw his hand like that... I don't think it's that bad, but his arm is very aggressive, he could easily have gone for that.”
Even former Real Madrid and Manchester United player and Wright’s co- pundit Michael Owen felt that things would have been different had Ramsey gone down on the pitch.
“If Ramsey goes down and rolls around holding his face then he's in big trouble.”
Owen felt that the incident could have been avoided and that referee could have shown Cavani a red card had he seen the incident at that moment.
“That's the sad thing, really. You're almost encouraging players to go down. You shouldn't have to do that, the referee should act and obviously issue a card if he's seen that. You're almost encouraging the players to go down, otherwise there's no action,” added Michael Owen.
Apparently, Ramsey was over exaggerating after the contact by Edinson Cavani and was reportedly struck below the face. Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand and Liverpool FC legend Steven Gerrard also felt that the Arsenal midfielder was over-reacting over the incident.
“I think there was a bit of over-reacting from Ramsey. I think if he was a foreign player we'd be going mad,” said Ferdinand after the match in the studio.
Steven Gerrard added: “I think he should be a little embarrassed by that. I thought the Welsh are meant to be tough!”
The 2-2 result against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League saw Arsenal move to the second spot in their group. Had Arsenal won the game, Wenger’s men could have been group leaders, instead of the French champions. The Gunners take on FC Basel in their final Champions League group fixture on the 7th of December.
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