Keown and Lescott clash over red card for Arsenal’s Gabriel Martinelli | Football | Sport

“I just felt it was quite tough on the player and they’re going to be without him now for a very important game. They saw it through and it didn’t really matter on the night. Nonetheless I thought it was pedantic from the referee.”

However, Lescott was certain that they were both yellow card incidents, and that Martinelli knew that as he claimed: “We all knew he was going to be on the first (yellow). That’s the thing, he’s reacting to his frustration of not getting a foul.

“He’s shown his frustration by trying to stop Podence from taking the throw-in. We’re all aware that’s a yellow card. The ref chose to play the advantage and play on then all of a sudden the emotions have got the better of him and he’s committed another foul.”

The issue certainly caused controversy, and things even got heated in the BT Sport studio as Rio Ferdinand and Robbie Savage argued with Peter Walton, who clarifies the laws of the game in these instances.