Takehiro Tomiyasu: Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta says ‘we might have to play with stop watch’

“We might have to play with a stop watch,” quipped Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta after Takehiro Tomiyasu’s eight seconds to take a throw-in played a part in his red card.

Referees have been told to clamp down on time wasting and dissent this season – with 18 yellow cards for dissent and 14 for time wasting in the opening two weekends.

Those 32 yellows in just over 5% of the season compare to 174 across the entire of last campaign. If the cards continue at the current rate there will be 608 this season.

‘This will have a big impact’

For this latest one, Kai Havertz had the ball for 15 seconds for Arsenal’s throw-in before instead handing it to Tomiyasu. The Japan defender looked for players to make a run and just as he was taking it, eight seconds later, he was booked.

Not long after he was shown a second yellow card for a minor foul on Jordan Ayew.

“These are the [new] standards,” Arteta told BBC Sport afterwards.

“I don’t exactly how long… [On being told it was 23 seconds]. No, it wasn’t. I think it was eight seconds. We might have to play with a stop watch. It’s OK, we won the game, I’m happy.”

He added: “The new rules are one thing, the way it is communicated is very different but we will adapt.”

Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville said on Sky Sports: “We went to see [referees’ chief] Howard Webb a few weeks ago and it was said the existing rules cater to stop time wasting.

“If players start getting sent off for wasting time – this will have a bigger impact tonight on time wasting, than adding 15 minutes on at the end.”

That was a reference to the other big change this season – more injury time being added onto the end of games to more accurately reflect all the stoppages.

Ex-Liverpool player Jamie Carragher added: “I feel sorry for Tomiyasu. The role of Partey at the start, then Havertz. I don’t think Tomiyasu is wasting time, he ran to pick the ball up.”

‘It is working in terms of getting players sent off’

Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson said: “These rules and ideas are thrust upon us, we don’t have too much say, we have to learn to live with them.

“I can understand how Arsenal would be unhappy about the two yellow cards, I am sure I would be too.

“It is working in terms of getting players sent off but whether that is the right thing, I will leave referees to decide themselves.”

A total of five players were sent off in this weekend’s nine games, although Tomiyasu’s was the only one involving the new guidelines.

Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice added: “At the start we had a referees’ meeting explain the new rules. We know if we time waste we will get a yellow card, but the added time can be frustrating at times at the end.

“They laid down the law at the start of the season and if they are time wasting there is nothing we can do about it.”

Arteta was not the first manager to complain about new advice this weekend.

Fulham had captain Tim Ream sent off for two bookings, the second in conceding a somewhat harsh penalty, in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat by Brentford.

Boss Marco Silva was shown a yellow card for dissent in the aftermath.

“It’s the new Premier League, we have to get used to it,” he said afterwards. “Any time you don’t have your hands in your pockets it’s a yellow card for the manager. Any time a player moves in the direction of the referee there will be a yellow card.

“We’ll have over 200 yellows in the first 10 weeks. There are new rules and we have to get used to it. The Premier League is totally different now to last season or the season before or the last 20 years. We have to adapt. It’s difficult to understand.”