Howard Webb clears up 'crazy' controversial Arsenal and Liverpool referee decision

Howard Webb has addressed an incident involving Dominik Szoboszlai earlier in the season, when the Liverpool midfielder kicked the ball away having already been booked earlier on in the defeat by Nottingham Forest.

The Hungarian was cautioned in the 86th minute of the match for holding, and just minutes later, his frustration got the better of him as he kicked the ball away after another foul had been given against him.

Szoboszlai escaped a second booking, much to the fury of Arsenal supporters, who were fuming during the Gunners' third Premier League game of the season when Declan Rice was shown a second yellow card for a similar offense against Brighton .

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Brighton's Joel Veltman was gearing up to take a free-kick at the Emirates when Rice nudged the ball away and was given his marching orders, and a similar incident occurred last month when Leandro Trossard was dismissed for kicking the ball away after the whistle had gone during a match against Manchester City.

Webb, who is now the PGMOL's chief refereeing officer, explained the referee's decision not to send Szoboszlai off during an appearance on the Stick to Football podcast. He said: "We ask the referees to try and identify situations that are clear, deliberate, and impact on the ability of the other team to restart the game.

"For example, there was a comparison made a couple of weeks ago between what Leandro Trossard did in the Manchester City vs Arsenal game and what Dominik Szoboszlai did in the Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest game.

"They are incomparable in terms of the impact – one happened on a free kick to Manchester City in an attacking area, in added time, at the end of the first half. Trossard kicked the ball away and prevented City from being able to even think about restarting the game quickly, which I’m sure they would want to as it was 2-1 to Arsenal at the time.

"The other one, Liverpool were down at home to Forest, 1-0, it’s in 90+4 minutes, and there’s an offside or a foul given against Liverpool, and Szoboszlai, in frustration, kicks the ball across the penalty area – he’s wasting his own time. It would be crazy for us to caution him at that point for kicking a ball away when Forest would be saying ‘thanks a lot.'

"(If we cautioned him), we’d be seen as totally out of touch with the game in that situation, whereas the other one was impactful on City being able to restart the game. In that situation, there were City players ready to restart, but there were no Forest players around, and they wouldn’t have restarted quickly anyway. People ask us to understand the game, so that made total sense to me.”