Antonio Conte has said David Luiz should have been given a free kick moments before being sent off for a reckless tackle on Sead Kolasinac in the final minutes of Chelsea’s goalless draw against Arsenal.
Luiz, got a yellow earlier in the match for catching Laurent Koscielny’s face with an attempted bicycle kick and was shown a straight red card by referee Michael Oliver in the 87th minute after his studs made contact with Kolasinac’s ankle on the halfway line in front of both managers.
“You know very well that I don’t like to comment on refereeing decisions,” Conte said of the incident. “It is in the past. Now the only thing I can say is it is very important to see what happened before the David Luiz tackle.”
“Do you think we are becoming bad? For sure, it’s strange, no? A strange situation. But in normal situations we have to improve. In tactical situations, physical situations, you need to try and improve. Also, you have to be more lucky in the future.
“I was a player and I think it can happen, this type of period, if you are not so lucky and receive red cards.
“In the end, we’ll try to pay more attention in the future. I hope, also, to be more lucky with the refereeing decisions — for us, and also for the opponents. Sometimes [this season] the opponents deserved a red card but, instead, they carry on playing with 11 men.”
“I think the performance was a good performance,” he insisted. “When you play this type of game, a massive game, you know very well anything can happen. We tried to win. Both teams tried to win, and created chances to score. I think, finally, it was a good draw.
“We started the game very well in the first 20 minutes, and then we suffered a bit in the middle of the first half.
“But sometimes you forget Arsenal are one of the top six [teams] in England and, for this reason, we all know the type of game that we would face against them. Arsenal are a really good team, a strong team.
“They have a lot [of quality] all over the field. It’s normal to find this type of situation when they are dangerous.”
Support InfoStride News' Credible Journalism: Only credible journalism can guarantee a fair, accountable and transparent society, including democracy and government. It involves a lot of efforts and money. We need your support. Click here to Donate