Not for the first time in a North London Derby, one side failed to keep all 11 players on the pitch.
In the meeting at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in May, it was Arsenal who were reduced to 10-men when Rob Holding was given his marching orders for two bookable offences as his plan to nullify the threat of Son Heung-min ultimately backfired and resulted in him heading for an early shower.
But at the weekend, it was Spurs' discipline that came into question as Emerson Royal was shown a straight red card following a nasty tackle on Gabriel Martinelli and to make matters even worse for Antonio Conte, moments later Granit Xhaka put the game to bed with his second goal of the season.
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Speaking about the incident in his post-match press conference, Conte noted that the red card "killed the game" but refused to criticise the officiating: "Honestly, I always have said in the past that I don't like to comment on refereeing decisions. I comment on the VAR decision because I think without the monitor and the video it is really really difficult to get the best decision.
"About the referee decision I think that I don't want to comment. There are images and I think everybody can think what is the best decision but I don't want to comment on this. Maybe if I have to repeat some yellow card in the first half that maybe the referee can use much more than the yellow card in the first half for somebody."
As per Arsenal's 'Bench Cam' video which has been uploaded to the club's official website and YouTube channel, Conte's reaction was captured and before the red card was produced by Anthony Taylor, he was visibly angry with Emerson's tackle as he headed back to his technical area.
Meanwhile, Mikel Arteta initially missed the showing of the red card and it appeared he had to be informed of the decision by set-piece coach Nicolas Jover who seemed to be surprised by the decision as he mouthed "red" to the Arsenal manager whilst pointing to the club crest.
Despite protests by some of the Tottenham players to the decision, former referee Peter Walton explained on BT Sport why the red card was the correct choice: "I don’t think Tottenham or Emerson Royal will have any complaints about this tackle at all. The challenge completely out of context, the actual challenge itself going down the side of the shin - with force - and that’s the main thing.
"Force equals a sending-off offence. It was serious foul play, Anthony Taylor took his time because I don’t think he realised what happened straight in front of him, he’s looked at it and it’s a red card offence."
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