A lot of angry fans have taken to social media to talk about Nicolas Jackson’s challenge on Takehiro Tomiyasu during Arsenal’s 5-0 win over Chelsea.
Fans thought Jackson, a striker for Chelsea, “got away” with “deliberately stomping” on Tomiyasu during his team’s big loss at the Emirates.
Jackson tried to block Tomiyasu after he got around Conor Gallagher in the middle of the field, but he hit Gallagher instead.
On social media, though, football fans were angry that the 22-year-old Chelsea star went diving in with his boots up.
People asked on social media how Jackson got away with not getting a card. Some said he should have gotten at least a yellow card.
As one fan put it, “Thought it was bad, but it also looks pretty planned.” One more person said, “Ankle breaker and no card?” It makes sense.
Some fans got angry at VAR and said they were “sleeping” at work. One angry fan wrote, “VAR sleeping… terrible.”
One fan even tagged the official account of the Professional Game Match Officials.
A lot of people thought Chelsea was unfair because Leandro Trossard got a yellow card for a similar foul.
“Yet Trossard gets a yellow for a similar, but much tamer and less dangerous.” wrote one fan. Someone else agreed and wrote, “So Trossard gets a card and he doesn’t?”
When Jackson’s challenge was shown on TNT at halftime of the Premier League game, Rio Ferdinand agreed that it was “reckless.”
“I couldn’t believe that challenge wasn’t even looked at by VAR,” he said. This season has had a lot of bad things happen, some even worse than this. You think to yourself, “Wow, they got sent off.”
“If they had seen this, they would have known for sure that this was a dangerous challenge.” Wow. Please have them come over and explain that to me.
He agreed with Ferdinand and said, “I mean, that’s stunning.” After the game, I think we saw Mikel Arteta get a yellow card. He might have been upset about Trossard getting booked, which we can see, but Jackson, you know, hasn’t even been hired.
To which Ferdinand replied, “That’s where the rule needs to change. You can’t say that’s okay; that’s a careless challenge.”