Is Arsenal’s Jack Wilshere getting enough referee protection?

Talkers of today’s Arsenal-Manchester City contest (2-0 for City) included DOGSO, two-footed lunges and what we’ll call “protection.”

We addressed DOGSO already – in the wonkish parlance of the refereeing world, that’s “Denial of Goal Scoring Opportunity.”

On Vincent Kompany’s two-footed lunge, I generally say the same thing in these circumstances: we can have a legitimate debate about true red card-worthiness here, because the City center back did get the ball, and did not get much of Jack Wilshere’s shin. (In fact, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has already said he plans to appeal Kompany’s ejection.)

But the bottom line for me is that Kompany simply must be smarter there. Defenders who go in with both feet, cleats up, get little sympathy from me. Even the savviest, smoothest tackler cannot know how this is going to look to the man in the middle. We see this time and again, where a clean tackle really does look vicious, and all it takes to elicit ejection is an imperfect angle from the only set of eyes that matter.

In this case, referee Mike Dean was certainly going to level matters and 10 on 10 if there was any cause to do so. City was never going to get the benefit of the doubt, and Kompany should have known so.

It looked heavy and dangerous, so it just was not the smartest of actions.

Now … onto “protection.”

Gunners fans are wondering if Wilshere is getting enough of it? And they are right to do so. Consider:

The man was kicked and hacked mercilessly. Arsenal players, clearly frustrated, let Dean know how they felt, admonishing the veteran referee with a couple of serious hissy-fit temper tantrums (pictured, as Wilshere lays on the ground).

Meanwhile, Wilshere played it cool, proving something today, taking the punishment in midfield and returning for more. No that it surprises anyone.

Gunners teammates are surely a little more sensitive here, seeing as Wilshere only recently got back on the field after about 14 months away from the game. He’s a real talent, this 21-year-old England international – but he cannot take too many matches like Sunday’s.