(Photo Credit: Sky Sports)

'That's a red' - Keith Hackett re-analyses Dejan Kulusevski footage vs Chelsea

Refereeing Consultant AUTHORITY Former FIFA Referee; Head of PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited). FOCUS Laws of the Game, VAR implementation, officiating performance, and PGMOL policy. THE AUDIT Keith utilises Statscore’s Officiating Telemetry, including Deep-Data Metrics like Incident Accuracy Rates, VAR Intervention Latency, and Official Positional Efficiency. He provides technical refereeing analysis to reveal the regulatory reality behind match-defining decisions.

Published on:

09 Dec 2024, 8:11 am

Keith Hackett believes that Anthony Taylor should have sent off Dejan Kulusevski in Tottenham's 4-3 defeat against Chelsea.

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the former PGMOL chief, ex-FIFA and Premier League referee claims the 24-year-old used his elbow “as a weapon" in a controversial incident.

Kulusevski’s elbow connected with Romeo Lavia as he ran past the Chelsea midfielder during the first half, which led to him falling down to the ground.

Taylor opted not to punish the Sweden international, but Lavia has since shared an image of his head to showcase the damage that the collision caused.

Chelsea could also have gone down to 10 men due to an incident involving Moises Caicedo, but Taylor didn’t give him a red card either which frustrated Spurs fans.

However, Hackett explained to Football Insider that the Ecuador international should also have been given a red card.

Dejan Kulusevski should have been sent off against Chelsea

Hackett told Football Insider, “Well, let me tell you that’s a red card.

“I was watching the game and I said, ‘He’s going.’

“The question for me here is this, why didn’t, I think Jarred Gillett was on VAR, an experienced match official.

“Why didn’t he intervene on both of these situations?

“The first one, endangers the safety of an opponent, the second one was a clear act of violence.

“The elbow is used as a weapon, and that must have been seen by the VAR.

“We have got to get into a situation where VAR understands that when they’re looking at this screen, a clear and obvious error which both of these are by Anthony Taylor, should have sent Taylor to the screen to review both incidents.

(Photo Credit: Imago)

“On the Caicedo one, I don’t think a yellow card was given to either of these, I find it amazing.

“It’s just poor, unacceptable officiating from one of our top referees.”

In other news, Ange Postecoglou sack: Tottenham ‘increasingly eye Marco Silva’ at Fulham.

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