Sky Sports pundits unanimously condemned officials for sparing Lisandro Martinez a red card for his “reckless” and “nasty” challenge on Cole Palmer in the closing minutes of Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea.
A VAR review of Martinez’s studs-up challenge on the England forward sided with referee Robert Jones’s initial conclusion that the foul did not amount to “serious foul play”.
Gary Neville immediately said on co-commentary that he believed the referee had made a mistake, and Roy Keane, Frank Lampard and Jamie Redknapp all agreed Martinez had been “lucky”.
With Martinez escaping with a yellow card, Keane said: “The lad’s a lucky boy. He won’t be happy with Palmer making a fool of him and he’s obviously gone in there… it’s a nasty tackle.”
Keane, who received 11 red cards during his time at Old Trafford, acknowledged he was well-qualified to spot a bad foul.
“Obviously, I’m always wary of criticising players for tackles because I done some daft stuff,” he said. “He’s a lucky boy,” the Irishman added. “I don’t think he does catch him properly – it’s down the side of his leg…. But if he got sent off, I’d say there’d be no complaints.”
Lampard added: “I think it’s red card for intention… After a bit of skill, he knew he was late, and he’s gone ‘I’m gonna leave a bit on you’.”
Redknapp added that the challenge was “reckless and it’s nasty”. “He knows exactly what he’s doing,” the former Tottenham and Liverpool midfielder said. “He’s been made to look a fool and he’s come in and just thought ‘have some of that’… he’s just got that nasty streak in him. I don’t mind a bit of aggression, but look how high he gets his leg. There’s no need for it.”
The pundits had been bitterly critical over the quality of Football throughout the match on Sunday, with Keane saying he was looking forward to the final whistle.
Moises Caicedo had cancelled out a Bruno Fernandes’ penalty as visitors Chelsea secured a hard-fought point to climb above Arsenal in the Premier League table.
The PGMOL – the refereeing body of English football – later explained why Martinez avoided a red card during the incident with a minute remaining of the match. VAR Michael Salisbury reviewed the incident but did not upgrade to a red.
“The referee issued a yellow card to Martinez for a challenge on Palmer,” the match centre said later. “VAR checked for a potential red card and confirmed the referee’s call of no red card, deeming that it was a reckless challenge and not serious foul play.”
