Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo was sent off against Arsenal on Sunday after the video assistant referee intervened to send the on-field ref over to the pitchside monitor
Moises Caicedo was initially shown a yellow card against Arsenal before VAR intervened(Image: Getty Images)
Former Match of the Day host Gary Lineker has questioned the use of slow-motion replays in VAR checks after Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo was sent off against Arsenal on Sunday. Caicedo saw red for a foul on Mikel Merino but was only dismissed after referee Anthony Taylor was called over to the pitchside monitor by the video assistant ref John Brooks..
Before Brooks’ intervention, Taylor had shown Caicedo a yellow card. However, it was upgraded when the repllay offered him a closer look at the incident, which occurred towards the end of the first half.
Lineker didn’t necessarily disagree with the eventual outcome, but still had concerns when it came to the use of slo-mo as a whole. “I don’t think they should have slow motion for things like that. It’s the same when you see still shots of peoples’ feet,” he said on The Rest Is Football podcast.
“‘His (Caicedo’s) foot wasn’t raised, it was on the ground, he was a millisecond late for the ball and slow motion makes it look terrible. I understand exactly why they possibly overturned the decision but, I mean, really?!
“I just think slow motion distorts what actually happens… If he’s got his foot in the air and above the ball, that used to be over the top, red card definitely. But these ones, it looks terrible in slow motion, but when you see it – and I watched it lots in normal time and at normal speed, it was just a fraction [late].”
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Fellow panelist Micah Richards agreed, saying “When it happened in real speed I didn’t think it was that bad, and when they slowed it down I thought ‘That’s horrendous’… When you see his foot is planted a little bit and the way his (Merino’s) ankle goes, the referee is going to go to the monitor and give a red card.”
However, Alan Shearer sympathised with the ref, even though he shared Lineker’s view that it might not have been a red in previous eras. “When you challenge like that you run the risk of giving the referee or the VAR the chance to send you off,” he said.
Referee Anthony Taylor brandishes the red card for Caicedo(Image: Getty Images)
Despite playing more than half of the match with 10 men, Chelsea claimed a point at home to the league leaders and could have even won the game. Trevoh Chalobah headed the Blues in front early in the second half, only for Merino to equalise just before the hour mark.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca, for his part, conceded Caicedo’s red card was a fair decision. However, he believed Arsenal’s Piero Hincapie should also have seen red for an elbow and also made reference to Spurs midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur receiving more lenient punishment against his team earlier in the season.
“We struggle to understand why they judge in [a] different way,” Maresca said. “Chalobah has a black eye [after Hincapie’s foul]. But they judge it in different way. Moises was a red card. But so was Rodrigo Bentancur when we played Spurs. That is why we struggle to understand.”
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