Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has said that Wolverhampton Wanderers got away with one against Sheffield United.
The ex-official was speaking about an incident that occurred in the second-half at Molineux, where Rayan Ait-Nouri challenged Rhian Brewster.
The Frenchman completely missed the ball and landed on the Blades attacker’s planted ankle.
A foul was actually given against Brewster, who even received a yellow card.
The incident was looked at by VAR (Chris Kavanagh), which did not take any action against £37,000-a-weeo ace Ait-Nouri (Spotrac) and backed the decision given by referee Rob Jones.
Gallagher told Sky Sports: “This was the most amazing decision for me at the weekend.
“It’s reckless at least. I think he could have easily got a red card. He should get at least a yellow.”
Gallagher adds that he checked on the incident, and was told Ait-Nouri’s challenge didn’t meet the threshold.
Gallagher also apparently enquired as to why it wasn’t a case of mistaken identity.
He said: “It was pointed out that the referee had made that decision on the field, that it was Brewster that had committed the foul and got the yellow card.
“Therefore it wasn’t mistaken identify because he’d made that decision. Mistaken identity is only if he’d have given a yellow card to Ollie Norwood, who was the closest player to Brewster.”
Ait-Nouri a very lucky boy
It was a red card all day long.
How the VAR did not overturn the original decision is remarkable.
It really does speaks volumes about the standard of officiating in the Premier League.