Guendouzi Explains Rough Tackle On Zaha

Arsenal’s Matteo Guendouzi has made an attempt at explaining his rough tackle on Crystal Palace’s Wilfred Zaha.

The young lad received a yellow card following the tackle. However, the midfielder is of the opinion that the tackle was necessary to prevent Palace from grabbing a late winner on home soil.

The Gunner had raced to a 2-0 lead as centre halves David Luiz and Sokratis found the net from a corner just inside of ten minutes at the Emirates.

And for the second time this campaign, they let a solid lead slip with Zaha drawing a penalty, which Luka Milivojevic converted, and Jordan Ayew scoring the equaliser just before the hour mark.

In the final minutes of the game, Zaha led a counterattack but was stopped enroute to Arsenal’s goal by Guendouzi who appeared to have wrestled him to the ground.

Guendouzi however said that the tackle was necessary to save his side their blushes.

“I had to foul Zaha at the end, otherwise he is through on goal on his own,” the Frenchman told Arsenal’s official website .

“I’m the last defender but I’m far from our goal as well. I had to do it.

“We really wanted to win the game, so we attacked a lot towards the end to get the third goal. We allowed spaces [for Palace on the break] but it’s because we really wanted to win.”

The midfielder insisted that his side losing a two-goal advantage wasn’t down to mental fragility. He insisted that the Gunners could have claimed the win if not for VAR’s calls to award the Eagles a penalty and a Sokratis goal that was disallowed in the final stages of the game.

“It’s not a mental issue. We didn’t manage to hold our advantage,” the Arsenal midfielder continued.

“We knew they were a good team, with individual quality, and they played well for their goals. Zaha did well to get a penalty. It’s down to us to work so we win these kinds of matches after taking the lead.

“I’m not sure what happened on our disallowed goal. It’s like last Monday at Sheffield [United]. The ref didn’t check with VAR then on Sokratis and Saka. This time he checks, and it goes against us. I haven’t seen it again yet, but we lose two points because of that today and a point at Sheffield too.”

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