Central defender Gabriel of Arsenal has become one of the first casualties of the new refereeing regulations in the Premier League season 2026/27 during the fourth round match against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.
In the 50th minute of the match, following a set piece, the Brazilian defender went down and began to show signs of severe pain, signalling to the referee that Sunderland's Daniel Ballard had caught him in the face with an elbow.
However, referee John Brooks showed little sympathy for the visiting defender. Instead of awarding a foul against Ballard, the official instructed Gabriel to leave the pitch and wait for a minute near the technical area before he would be allowed to return.
Brooks enforced a new official Premier League rule: match officials are permitted to send players off the pitch for exactly one minute if they conclude that a player is intentionally feigning injury to waste time. This decision meant that Arsenal had to defend with ten men for a whole minute. Gabriel was left furious by the referee's decision, but there was no option to contest the call.
