Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has called for the Football
Association to review their rules on retrospective
punishment.
The Frenchman's plea follows Mark Noble's crunching challenge on
Alex Hleb during the 1-0 victory at Upton Park.
Noble caught the Belarusian with a late sliding tackle and was
yellow carded by referee Alan Wiley.
In his post-match interview Wenger branded the challenge as 'very
nasty', and described Hleb's bruising as 'unbelievable'.
Having watched replays of the incident, The Gunners manager has now
voiced his belief that Noble should have received a straight red
for his offence.
Wenger, though, defended Wiley's decision not to dismiss the
player, and explained that he feels the referee had a poor angle of
the foul.
Because Wiley dealt with the incident during the game it cannot be
changed retrospectively, and here is where Wenger's issue
lies.
"I have seen it again and it was a straight red for Noble, without
a doubt," he said.
Diminish the
power
"I can understand the referee could not see it, because you could
only see it well from one angle on television. That angle is really
bad.
"I do not blame the referee because he could not see what happened.
He saw it was a foul but he certainly did not notice how bad the
foul was at the time.
"There is a case to charge some players after that because
sometimes the referee cannot see.
"Only if the referee says he did not see how bad it was.
"The rule would be made not to diminish the power and the authority
of the referee - but with the referee's help you could do it."