Bolton to appeal Cahill red card
Bolton Wanderers has appealed to the Football Association over Gary Cahill's red card against Arsenal.
Cahill was shown a straight red by the referee during the 4-1 loss after a challenge on Arsenal striker Marouane Chamakh. Bolton's manager Owen Coyle was furious about the decision.
He said: "My initial reaction was that he was harshly dealt with. Perhaps it warranted a yellow card, I do feel that we have been unlucky. Just ahead of the sending-off there was the incident with Chung-Yong Lee and when we didn’t get awarded a foul."
Coyle recently said that Cahill is good enough to play for any of the top four sides in England. He is massively important to Bolton and will at present miss games against Aston Villa, Manchester United and Burnley.
A solid case
Bolton has a solid case because everything Coyle said after the incident makes sense. There was a clear foul on a Bolton player in the passage of play that led to Cahill's dismissal.
When any incident is sent to the FA for review, the job of the officials is to review the incident the player was punished for and the passage of play building up to it. This means that if FA officials agree that there was an earlier foul in the passage of play then Cahill's three-game ban could be reduced or scrapped.
Cahill has been one of the main defenders for the club this season and it's important for Bolton's chances of progression that he can play as much as possible. He is clearly in form and his start of season performances led to an England cap against Bulgaria at Wembley.
Coyle added: "Playing Arsenal eleven versus eleven was always going to be difficult, so losing Gary Cahill was a major moment because up to then we were still in the game. It was a yellow card."
Betting advice
Be wary of backing Bolton until you hear the decision of the appeal. Cahill is vital to the way that Bolton defends. They are much better with him and the defence could leak more goals without him in the side.
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