Chelsea star David Luiz 'wet himself' with fear before his 'atrocious' tackle on Sead Kolasinac, says Ray Wilkins
- Ray Wilkins says David Luiz was scared of 'giant' Arsenal star Sead Kolasinac
- The Chelsea defender was shown a straight red card after his reckless tackle
- Wilkins believes Luiz flew into the 50/50 challenge because he was fearful
Former Chelsea coach Ray Wilkins has criticised David Luiz for his tackle on Sead Kolasinac, which saw him sent off in the latter stages of their draw with Arsenal on Sunday.
With the game petering out to a 0-0 stalemate, Luiz flew into a 50/50 challenge on Kolasinac with his right foot off the ground and left Michael Olivier with little choice but to show him a straight red card.
As Alexis Sanchez was nabbing at his heels in the moments before the tackle was made, some pundits have theorised that Luiz's tackle was made worse because the Chilean threw him off balance.
David Luiz was shown a red card by Michael Oliver for his foul on Sead Kolasinac
However, Wilkins says the only reason the defender made the 'atrocious' challenge was due to the fear of going head-to-head with the imposing Bosnia and Herzegovina international.
He told talkSPORT: 'It was an atrocious tackle. He either wants to hurt Kolasinac, or he's afraid. I'll go for the latter.
'He saw him coming towards him and thought, "wow, this fella is a giant" and he basically wet himself.
'Kolasinac went to the floor, his boots never came off the ground, he just went for the ball. If Luiz had done that there would have been nothing wrong. It's on the halfway line for goodness sake.'
The centre-back was accused of making an 'atrocious' tackle by former coach Ray Wilkins
Wilkins says Luiz was scared of going into a challenge with the imposing Arsenal star
One person who believes Sanchez is to blame for the incident is Chelsea manager Antonio Conte and says referee Oliver should have stopped play for a foul before Luiz clashed with Kolasinac.
'I don't like to comment on refereeing decisions, it is in the past, but now the only thing I can tell you is it is very important to see what happened before the David Luiz tackle,' Conte said.
'For sure, that was a foul (by Sanchez on Luiz). But the referee took this decision. If he stopped the play before, it wouldn't matter.'
Should the FA decide against altering the automatic three-game ban, Luiz will miss fixtures against Nottingham Forest (Carabao Cup), Stoke City and Manchester City.
Antonio Conte believes Alexis Sanchez played a role in Luiz's tackle in the build up
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