Despite a hefty 4-0 lead at halftime, Newcastle rallied against Arsenal on Saturday and posted four unanswered goals to end the match in a tie.
The momentum for that rally came early in the second half when Arsenal’s Abou Diaby was given a red card after he reacted to a Joey Barton tackle by grabbing the Newcastle midfielder by the neck and shoving him to the ground.
Later, Jack Wilshere took to Twitter to share his thoughts about the game.
“Inconsistent refereing needs to stop.its killing the game.if Diaby goes..whats the difference between that and Nolan on our keeper!?? #joke.”
The incident Wilshere is referring to is from earlier in the match, when Newcastle’s Kevin Nolan threw Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny to the ground by the scruff of his neck. The actions were undeniably similar, yet official Phil Dowd only chose to send Diaby out of the game.
Wilshere quickly deleted his tweet, however, likely due to the possibility of punishment for his comments.
Last month, former Liverpool striker Ryan Babel posted a manipulated photo on his offical Twitter account of referee Howard Webb in a Manchester United shirt, following a 1-0 defeat. He was subsequently fined £10,000.
In August 2009, when his move to Sunderland was delayed, Darren Bent posted several profane tweets criticizing Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy. Bent was forced to apologize for his remarks and the matter was dealt with internally. He stopped tweeting and closed his account when he signed with Sunderland.
