Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has questioned why Tottenham defender Cristian Romero was not issued a red card his the Marc Cucurella hair-pulling incident. In the build-up to Spurs' stoppage-time equaliser against Chelsea, the north Londoners were awarded a corner after the Argentine was seen dragging the Spaniard to the ground by his hair.
The referee, Anthony Taylor, was pictured to have been in direct eye-line of the altercation at the time of the delivery, though he dismissed the case and signalled for another corner to be taken after Edouard Mendy tipped the ball over. The Video Assistant Referees at Stockley Park stepped in to review Romero's hair-pulling incident, but they too dismissed Chelsea's claims of violent misconduct.
Harry Kane went on to salvage a point for the Lilywhites with a glancing header beyond Mendy at the far post. After the final whistle, red mist descended and yet another clash between Antonio Conte and Thomas Tuchel broke out, resulting in Taylor sending both off.
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Taylor, who has a history of controversial decisions against Chelsea, has faced great backlash as to how a red card was not issued to Romero. So, here's what former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher had to say when quizzed on the matter by Sky Sports News.
Is there any doubt in your mind that Romero pulls his hair?
No.
His head seems to go down to look at the incident...
I wonder if that's a reaction because it's already happened. So, instinctively he thinks something has happened but he hasn't seen it.
He doesn't see it, but should VAR have seen it? And, should there have been a red card? Should there have been a free-kick given to Chelsea? And, therefore the equalising goal shouldn't have stood because it came from the resulting corner?
Ri-hahaha, right. I think VAR should've intervened. I'm not sure the referee sees it. I think he looks down, but I think he looks down instinctively. I actually think that he's watching the flight of the ball, watching where the ball is going, watching where he thinks it's going to land on the dropping zone. He does look down but I think it's already happened so he can't judge what has happened. I think VAR has the perfect look because when we saw the replay yesterday, as soon as I saw it I said to a guy next to me, 'I think he's going to get a red card here'. He's pulled him down by the hair. I anticipated the VAR to send Anthony Taylor to the screen. I know for a fact if Anthony had gone to the screen it would have been a red card and a free-kick to Chelsea.
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