Pedro Neto\u2019s dismissal at Arsenal has developed into a disciplinary case that could keep the Chelsea winger out for longer than the automatic one-match ban. The FA have charged Neto with allegedly \u201cacting in an improper manner\u201d towards referee Darren England, citing that he \u201cfailed to leave the pitch promptly and\/or used abusive words towards the match officials.\u201d<\/p>\n
The red card followed two yellow cards, and Neto\u2019s reaction on the touchline is under scrutiny. He confronted Darren England, then engaged in an exchange with fourth official Stuart Attwell while walking the perimeter of the Emirates Stadium pitch before Chelsea staff escorted him down the tunnel. The sending off produced an immediate one-match ban, which Neto served in Wednesday\u2019s night game with Champions League qualification rivals Aston Villa.<\/p>\n
Chelsea did not suffer for his absence in that match. They dismantled Villa 4\u20131 at home, propelled by a hat-trick from Jo\u00e3o Pedro. Neto remains a highly regarded right winger, described in the original report as one of the best in his position, but the FA\u2019s additional charge could add at least one more match to his ban if he is found guilty. Neto, the former Wolverhampton Wanderers ace, has until Monday, March 9 to respond to the charge.<\/p>\n
Manager Liam Rosenior confirmed Neto had apologised to the squad for the red card and placed the incident in the context of wider disciplinary concerns. Rosenior said: \u201cIt needs to improve. My job is to create a culture of accountability, where if you make a mistake it\u2019s OK, you hold your hands up and make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again. But you have to hold your hands up to the original mistake.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I make a wrong team selection or I get something wrong, my job is to be accountable. It\u2019s the same for my players in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI just need to see an improvement in the behaviour now. It\u2019s not just Pedro. People speak about dissent; we\u2019ve had needless bookings in terms of fouls. If we are to improve and get to where we want to be, we have to make a conscious step now to make sure it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident follows a difficult start against Unai Emery\u2019s side, where Douglas Luiz opened the scoring after 125 seconds, a blow that came despite a pre-match huddle around the centre spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pedro Neto faces an FA charge that could extend his suspension after being sent off against Arsenal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,1383,172],"tags":[1505,1047,1089],"class_list":["post-7606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-chelsea-news","category-epl","tag-accountability","tag-champions-league","tag-chelsea-struggles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7606","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=7606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}