Gary Neville & Mike Dean explain why Chelsea's Tosin escaped red card v Liverpool as Saliba incident compared

Gary Neville and Mike Dean agreed that Chelsea’s Tosin Adarabioyo should not have been sent off against Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday as comparisons were drawn to the red card shown to William Saliba in Arsenal’s loss to Bournemouth on Saturday evening.

Saliba was initially yellow carded by referee Robert Jones for a last-man foul on Evanilson. A poor pass from Leandro Trossard put Saliba in trouble, as Evanilson looked to run through on goal before being dragged down by the Frenchman. The decision was upgraded to a red card after Jones was sent to the pitch-side monitor by VAR Jarred Gillet. Arsenal went on to lose the game 2-0 after second-half goals from Ryan Christie and Justin Kluivert.

Less than 24 hours later, a similar incident occurred as Liverpool beat the Blues 2-1 on Merseyside. Mohamed Salah curled a ball over the Chelsea defence as Diogo Jota escaped the clutches of Tosin and had a run on goal only to be brought down by the Chelsea man just past the halfway line. Referee John Brooks brandished a yellow card, with VAR opting to stick with the on-field decision. Immediate comparisons were made to the Saliba incident by former Manchester United defender and Sky Sports commentator Gary Neville. He said while on commentary: ”The difference from the Arsenal one with Saliba is that there are defenders around him [Tosin]."

Former Premier League referee Mike Dean also weighed in, as he said: "There is too much doubt involved there, the ball is also going towards the assistant referee. It is completely different to Saliba. That's the correct decision."

A Premier League statement via the Match Centre on Saturday explained the reasoning for Saliba’s dismissal: “The referee gave Saliba a yellow card for a challenge on Evanilson. The VAR deemed that Saliba denied an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and recommended an on-field review. The referee then upgraded the yellow to a red card.”

Saliba will miss this weekend’s crunch Premier League clash with Liverpool as a result of his red card but will only receive a one-game ban. Professional fouls only carry a one-match suspension compared to the three games for incidents of violent conduct. Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice felt his side would have won the game against Bournemouth if Saliba remained on the pitch. He said: “It’s three times [a red card] in eight games now we’ve let our standards slip. If we want to compete at the top we can’t let that happen.

“The reaction we showed to that, the belief we showed that we could go and win the game and the chances that we had, I’m proud of these boys and proud of the mentality that they show. We’ll keep pushing, we’ll keep fighting on. So disappointing because we wanted to stay unbeaten, we wanted to win the game. But this is football and it’s a real rollercoaster. It’s never going to be perfect. It’s going to be ups and downs, but we need to stick together.

“The game stays 11 v 11 I think we go on to win. We still created some amazing chances. They were throwing everything at us and leaving big spaces. But that’s football. You can’t wish for that or gamble, you need to earn it.”