Ainsley Maitland-Niles was unlucky to be sent off for Arsenal against Leicester and has James Maddison to blame, according to Graeme Souness.
The 21-year-old was booked twice in the first half at the King Power Stadium, the first for knocking over Ben Chilwell and the second coming for a lunge on Maddison.
It is the first red card of Maitland-Niles’ young career and Souness believes he should count himself unfortunate for the second yellow card, if not the first.
‘This is a booking, he obstructs him, doesn’t want to get in a race with him [Chilwell] and it’s a yellow card,’ Souness told Sky Sports.
‘The second one no, I think very unlucky, Maddison’s not helped his mate here. He [Maitland-Niles] slips, briefly, there’s a lunge but there’s not a lot of contact and I think that’s really harsh on the young man.’
Maddison and Maitland-Niles are teammates for England under-21s and held a conversation after the latter saw red, which seemed surprisingly friendly.
The Leicester man went down grasping his ankle after the challenge, which Souness believed was unnecessary and influenced referee Michael Oliver.
‘Where’s he hurt him there? He goes down holding what? Where’s the contact there to warrant that sort of reaction?’ Souness continued.
‘The referee was right on it. The players go down with a scream as well and that’s affected the referee who’s very close to the incident. There’ll be players all around him shouting “foul” but for me that’s not a yellow card.’
Arsenal are looking to move back into the top four in the Premier League with a point or more at Leicester, at least until Chelsea play Manchester United at Old Trafford later on Sunday afternoon.
A point would be enough to see them leapfrog Chelsea, but defeat would leave them languishing outside of the Champions League spots with two games to play.
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