Erik Lamela and Jan Vertonghen should have been sent off against Chelsea, says former referees’ chief Keith Hackett.
We won at Stamford Bridge on Sunday for the first time in 28 years thanks to goals from Christian Eriksen and a double from Dele Alli.
An article in The London Evening Standard describes how after we had taken the lead in the second half,Lamela appeared to step on Cesc Fabregas’s ankle and then knock his head, prompting the Spaniard to kick out, before Vertonghen’s tough tackle on Eden Hazard hit the latter’s shin.
“Both Erik Lamela and Jan Vertonghen will know they were lucky not to see red,”:Hackett wrote in his column for The Telegraph.
“Their challenges, on Cesc Fabregas and Eden Hazard respectively, were clearly reckless with excessive force. They were dangerous and could have caused serious injury, and there is no question in my mind that both were beyond the threshold required to issue a red card.
Hackett added: “Andre Marriner, the referee, will be disappointed he and his assistants did not see the incidents and deal with them correctly, and they were the only blots on what I felt was otherwise an expertly-refereed game.
He went on to say: “I watched the game on television and within one or two replays it was obvious how bad the challenges were, and they are the type of incidents I feel VAR will help to resolve in the future
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