Arsenal star Guendouzi somehow escapes red card as ‘rugby tackle’ on Zaha starts brawl vs Palace

MATTEO GUENDOUZI was lucky to escape a red card after a rugby tackle on Wilfried Zaha sparked a mass brawl between Arsenal and Crystal Palace players.

The incredible scenes occurred at the end of a dramatic 2-2 draw at the Emirates on Sunday evening, 15 minutes after Arsenal had a third goal disallowed by VAR.

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The Gunners were two goals ahead after just nine minutes thanks to strikes from centre-backs Sokratis and David Luiz.

But Palace pulled one back through a Luka Milivojevic penalty in the 32^nd minute.

And Jordan Ayew levelled the scores just seven minutes into the second half.

Sokratis thought he’d scored a potential winner late on but VAR declared it invalid due to a foul by Calum Chambers on Gary Cahill in the build-up.

The game was also marred by boos from Arsenal fans towards captain Granit Xhaka when he was subbed with half an hour to go.

But the most extraordinary scenes were reserved for the end, when Guendouzi stopped Palace from breaking up the pitch by launching himself bodily at Zaha.

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The move looked to be something out of rugby union, with Guendouzi clearly showing no intent to get to the ball.

Viewers were convinced the Frenchman was set to receive a red card for his highly cynical challenge.

But Guendouzi was extremely fortunate to receive just a yellow for his behaviour.

That didn’t stop Arsenal and Palace players from rounding on each other, though.

Angry figures from both sides collided following the challenge.

And they needed to be separated by teammates before taking things any further.

Roy Hodgson believes Guendouzi didn’t intend to cause any harm to Zaha.

But the former England boss believes Arsenal’s young Gunner was lucky to escape a sending off.

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Hodgson said: “There’s no way he wanted to cause any harm, he just wanted to stop Zaha getting free because they wouldn’t have caught him and it would have been a case of can he convert one on one.

“I think he is quite lucky he got the yellow card, some might say it was a red but that’s of no interest to me.

“I’m just disappointed Wilf didn’t get the chance to win the game for us.”

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