Why Kai Havertz was not sent off for Brentford ‘dive’ incident before scoring Arsenal winner

Kai Havertz was not shown a second yellow card before scoring Arsenal's winner against Brentford as neither referee Rob Jones nor video assistant referee (VAR) Paul Tierney felt that the German dived in the penalty area.

Mikel Arteta's men could celebrate on Saturday night as they sit top of the Premier League standings, knowing that either one or both of Liverpool and Manchester City will drop points when they face one another at Anfield on Sunday.

Declan Rice had put the Gunners ahead early on against the Bees, only for an Aaron Ramsdale error to gift Yoanne Wissa an equaliser on the stroke of half-time. After the break Arsenal pushed to restore the lead, and eventually did so without reply in 86th minute, when Havertz headed in from Ben White's cross.

However, the goal was not without a layer of controversy. In the background there have been shouts over whether Havertz deserved to be on the field of play to make the crucial impact, as some believed the German to have dived in an attempt to win a penalty in the 66th minute.

He went down in the penalty area under a challenge from Nathan Collins, but ref Jones immediately waved play-on. As is custom, Tierney reviewed the incident at Stockley Park but found no reason to award a penalty and therefore play continued.

Now football.london understands that in instances such as this one, just because no foul was given does not mean that the player attempted to deceive the officials with a dive — particularly one that is a yellow card offence. Jones did not call for a free-kick in Brentford's favour, as he would have done if he had felt the attacker had dived, and therefore Havertz was not penalised.

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