Emery ‘annoyed at Arsenal antics’ as Kavanagh slammed over Aston Villa incident
Chris Kavanagh was “harsh” to book Unai Emery for a touchline incident as Aston Villa drew at Arsenal on Saturday, according to Keith Hackett.
Emery will serve a touchline ban for Villa’s next Premier League game against West Ham after kicking the ball onto the pitch in the second half at the Emirates.
The Villa boss didn’t kick the ball away to waste time. His side were trailing at that moment and although he kicked the ball hard, the Spaniard did kick it in the direction of where it needed to be.
Former Premier League referee Hackett believes Emery will simply annoyed by Arsenal’s time-wasting antics and was trying to get the game to restart as quickly as possible.
“He is aware that with a 2-1 lead, Arsenal are good at applying time-wasting and time-delaying tactics,” Hackett told Villa News.
“He was clearly getting frustrated with the stoppages and wanted the game to restart and kicked the ball towards where the game needed to restart.
“Chris Kavanagh decided to issue a sanction to the Aston Villa manager.
“A little harsh, I felt.”
Unai Emery to serve Aston Villa touchline ban
Emery has received three yellow cards this season, meaning he’ll have to watch from the stands at Villa Park next Sunday (26 January) when the West Midlands side play struggling West Ham for the second time this month.
After the 2-2 draw at Arsenal, Emery revealed his frustration at being booked.
As quoted by BirminghamLive, he said: “I don’t know. I kicked the ball!
“I only kicked the ball in the direction of the players. You’re smiling!
“Next match I am out, okay. I can see it. I didn’t deserve a yellow card.”
In other Aston Villa news, Stan Collymore deleted his post about Mikel Arteta after the 2-2 draw.
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