Premier League release statement after 'reckless' tackle in dominant Arsenal win

Defender Nathaniel Clyne was only shown a yellow card for his reckless challenge on Riccardo Calafiori as Arsenal thrashed Crystal Palace 5-1 at Selhurst Park in the Premier League

The Premier League released a statement during Arsenal's win over Crystal Palace after the decision was made to not send off Nathaniel Clyne.

The Gunners had been frustrated to see Clyne remain on the pitch following a challenge. The Eagles defender left Riccardo Calafiori writhing in pain at Selhurst Park with a bad tackle in the 79th minute.

Arsenal were already leading the game 4-1 but will have worried their defensive injury issues had been made worse. Italian ace Calafiori was able to remain on the field and provide an assist for Declan Rice to finish the scoring in south London.

Clyne's challenge was judge to be only worth a yellow card by match official Simon Hooper. VAR operators at Stockley Park agreed with the decision suggesting the challenge did not amount to 'serious foul play'.

A statement on Premier League Match Centre read: "The referee issued a yellow card to Clyne for a challenge on Calafiori. VAR checked for a potential red card and confirmed the referee’s call, deeming that the challenge was reckless and not serious foul play."

Mikel Arteta will have been relieved to see that Calafiori was able to continue. The Bologna star had only just returned from injury after being ruled out since the end of November.

“Great to be back!" Calafiori wrote on Instagram following the match. "Big congrats to the team for this amazing away win."

Arteta's injury worries have only increased however after Bukayo Saka was forced from the field with a hamstring injury. The talismanic figure joins Raheem Sterling on the sidelines after the loanee was ruled out ahead of the game.

"He felt something in his hamstring," said the Spaniard of Saka. "He couldn’t continue. He will have to be assessed. Pretty worried about that one.

"It’s difficult to do that now [provide an estimate]. They have tested him inside but very difficult to say how bad it is.

"I’m not sure if it’s exactly the same one. It’s in the same leg. He had the third minor injury - I don’t know how big this is going to be. But he already had two."

"And Raheem as well," he added. "We lost Raheem yesterday and we don’t know for how long. To lose two players in 24 hours is not good. Unfortunately with the amount of games that we are playing and with this schedule it doesn’t surprise me. But the team will react to that."

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