Was Arter at fault or did the officials make a mistake?

There was a curious booking for Harry Arter in the game against Burnley. Having been injured and received treatment on the pitch in the first half he retreated to the sidelines as he should, but then came back on to the pitch not having received a signal from the referee to come back on. Apparently the ball was also very near and in play close to where Arter decided to come back on. The referee was hardly going to ignore the midfielder's indiscretion and sure enough he went straight into the book.

Did Harry get a signal to come back on to the pitch?

Until someone speaks to Harry Arter to find out why he decided it was okay to come back on we won't know exactly what he was thinking. However, I find it hard to imagine that he would forget to wait for an acknowledgement from an official and I suspect there was some signal from the assistant referee. If so could AFCB appeal against the decision? I doubt it, because I believe only the referee can signal a player to come back onto the field of play. 

Of course it was in Bournemouth's best interests to get Harry back on quickly to stop Burnely from getting too much of an advantage while AFCB were down to 10-men. His eagerness though cost him another card that puts him one away from a suspension now.

It was clear that Harry was very annoyed at being given a yellow card. He remonstrated with the referee for some time afterwards which would indicate that he felt he was perhaps given a signal to come on again or at least thought that the referee had indicated that. Other AFCB players had to haul Arter away from the referee.

We can criticise Harry's decision and impetuousness, but it could simply have been an honest mistake having got caught up in the moment. Following Elliot Ward's sending off in the Leicester game though for two yellow cards it did make me wonder if Arter would have to back off for the remainder of the game having picked up a card so early on. Luckily for him he did not get involved in any further incidents.

Harry lives to fight another day.

Eddie Howe did not speak of the incident in his post-match interview, but I suspect he will remind the players that they must do better at avoiding these needless bookings because in the long run they could be costly for the team.

If you were at the game, let Cherry Chimes know whether you thought Harry was unlucky or if the officials got it right. I am looking forward to see the footage on AFCB player but you don't always see everything when a signal could have been given outside of the camera shot.