The Premier League\u2019s Key Match Incident panel has backed the decision not to send off Gabriel for the first-half clash with Emiliano Mart\u00ednez in Arsenal\u2019s win over Chelsea in early September.<\/p>\n
The incident came during a frantic scramble inside the box after Calafiori\u2019s shot was blocked. With several players on the floor and the ball loose, the scene quickly became tangled, as bodies converged and each side tried to clear, finish, or simply claim possession. In that melee, Gabriel swung at the ball but instead caught Mart\u00ednez near the eye with his boot. The goalkeeper required treatment, and Chelsea players immediately called for a red card.<\/p>\n
Neither Chris Kavanagh, the referee, nor the VAR official judged the challenge to merit a dismissal. Arsenal went on to recover from being behind and won 2-1, one of the early headline matches of the 2026-27 Premier League season.<\/p>\n
The KMI panel, made up of five independent members who assess major refereeing calls from every game, ruled unanimously that the on-field decision was correct. \u201cThe panel unanimously supported the referee\u2019s call of no red card,\u201d the panel\u2019s ruling stated. \u201cMultiple players were on the ground competing and challenging for the loose ball, and the action of Gabriel was not deemed to be an act of violent conduct or serious foul play.\u201d<\/p>\n
That conclusion aligns with the FA\u2019s definition of violent conduct, which covers the use or attempted use of excessive force or brutality when not challenging for the ball, or against other individuals.<\/p>\n
In the panel\u2019s view, Gabriel was trying to direct the loose ball toward goal in a crowded sequence, rather than making a deliberate act of excessive force. Despite the contact with Mart\u00ednez\u2019s face, the referee, VAR and KMI all reached the same conclusion: no red card was required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KMI backs the no-red-card call for Gabriel after the chaotic Mart\u00ednez incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19555,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,190],"tags":[1836],"class_list":["post-19556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-chelsea","tag-2026-27-premier-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}