PGMOL chief Howard Webb has adjudged that Moises Caicedo should have received a card for his high challenge on Pape Matar Sarr at the weekend – a yellow one.
Eyebrows were raised when the Chelsea midfielder avoided punishment for a high tackle on his opposite numbers, with the challenge ankle-level and potentially seen as dangerous play.
Instead, he didn’t even receive a caution from referee Anthony Taylor, who also received criticism for allowing Dejan Kulusevski to stay on the pitch after an apparent albow on Romeo Lavia.
Webb took to the screen on Wednesday night for his latest episode of Match Officials Mic’d Up to assess the latest series of incidents in the Premier League alongside Michael Owen.
Have gave his verdict on the call, as well as a number of other contentious decisions, including that Wilfried Ndidi should have been sent off for a high tackle on Cole Palmer days earlier.
And he broke down Caicedo’s foul, assessing that he was right to remain on the pitch, but that there should have been a punishments for what went down.
Howard Webb has given his verdict on how Moises Caicedo should have been punished against Tottenham
Webb was speaking on Match Officials Mic’d Up after the midfielder was not repremanded
It was adjudged that there was a lack of force in the tackle but he should have been booked
‘I think a yellow card should have been shown,’ Webb said. ‘Caicedo received no disciplinary sanction for that action.
‘I think his actions are reckless. I know there was talk about the possibility of this being a red card. Some people felt it was. It’s not a red card for me. This is a situation where Moises Caicedo goes to swing to kick a ball, which is kicked away from him by Pape Sarr.
‘That swinging action continues into the leg of Sarr. You’ll see the foot comes through. It comes off really quickly, back on to the ground.
‘Slow motion can sometimes distort reality. When you watch it at full speed, it hits the shin and comes down into the ground. For me, that’s reckless. It’s not serious foul play because it’s not excessive force. It doesn’t endanger the safety of Pape Sarr.’
What appeared to save Caicedo was that there was a lack of force with the tackle. Jarred Gillet was the VAR official, with Mark Scholes his assistant, and he said that he didn’t think ‘excessive force’ was used.
Webb was in agreement with the explanation, and appeared pleased with his team’s work.
‘It is high. But slow motion, freeze frames, can make something look quite different,’ he added. ‘At full speed, there’s no real energy coming through that foot into the shin.
‘It comes off really quickly. So there’s not the kind of exertion of force through into the opponent’s leg which would do the damage. This hits the leg and comes off quickly.
Anthony Taylor was the person in charge of the game and didn’t show Caicedo any card
Caicedo stayed on the pitch and helped his side to a dominant 4-3 win in the London derby
‘It’s an action to strike, not forcing all his weight through that front foot. So it should be a yellow card for reckless action, but falls short of being serious foul play because it’s a kick to the leg and then it comes off quickly as opposed to that force being driven through into the opponent’s leg.’
The show dropped two days after it was confirmed that referee David Coote had been sacked as a Premier League referee.
A video emerged last month of the top-flight official insulting Liverpool and former manager Jurgen Klopp which saw him suspended.
Later in November, a separate clip of him appearing to snort a white powder in a hotel room while he was officiating at last summer’s Euros was published.
