Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was shown a yellow card after a late challenge that left Chelsea full back Reece James with studs in his ankle during a heated Premier League derby.<\/p>\n
James was first to a loose ball but received a full set of studs into his ankle for his troubles. On-pitch referee Jarred Gillett, who was taking charge of this infamously feisty fixture for the first time, gave himself some thinking time. After an exchange of views with the VAR in Stockley Park, Gillett brandished a yellow, rather than red, card. Much to James\u2019s evident fury, his Chelsea teammate Trevoh Chalobah was also booked for arguing with the referee.<\/p>\n
During the half-time interval the Premier League\u2019s official match centre explained that: \u201cThe referee\u2019s call of yellow card to Bentancur was checked and confirmed by VAR\u2014with the contact deemed to be a reckless challenge and not serious foul play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Law 12 in the FA Handbook details the subtle differences in its definition of \u201creckless\u201d challenges and \u201cserious foul play.\u201d That distinction underpinned the match officials\u2019 decision to leave Bentancur on the field.<\/p>\n
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher was quick to dismiss the incident. The former Liverpool defender, no stranger to a forceful lunge of his own back in his playing days, argued that Bentancur didn\u2019t make contact high enough up James\u2019s shin to warrant a red card.<\/p>\n
The verdict did not settle opinion among supporters. Social media reaction was sharply divided, with some users questioning Bentancur\u2019s decision-making and others angry that the tackle did not merit a sending-off:<\/p>\n
“Sometimes I genuinely do not understand the thought process behind some of Bentancur’s actions.”<\/p>\n
“How is Bentancur not sent off? I get its a derby, but those challanges should be red regardless imo”<\/p>\n
The confirmation from VAR that the challenge was reckless rather than serious foul play resolved the formal outcome, but it ensured the incident remained a contentious talking point after the match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Premier League: VAR confirmed yellow for Bentancur after studs into Reece James’s ankle; debate via<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172,187],"tags":[1162,947,1214],"class_list":["post-4202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","category-tottenham-hotspur","tag-analytics","tag-ankle-injury","tag-rodrigo-bentancur"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}