You are here

Forget About The Penalty What About The Red Card Not Given

nevillenixon's picture
Submitted by nevillenixon on Mon, 05/11/2018 - 11:37

There has been substantial coverage of the 'penalty' that should have been given during Hammers victory over Burnley at the London Stadium, the BBC match of the day reviewers and the match commentator Jonathan Pearce all agreed that Grady Diangana was clearly brought down in the box and deserved to have been awarded a penalty, replays confirmed the validity of the penalty comprehensively. Even referee supremo Mark Clattenburg came out of his cosseted closset to say "I am shocked that West Ham were not awarded a penalty when Grady Diangana was felled by Steven Defour. Sean Dyche praised Diangana for not making a meal of it but that is not why it was not given when a player is racing into the box with a defender in pursuit, the referee must be as close as possible but Roger East’s positioning was wrong. This was only his second Premier League match after failing a fitness test a lack of games makes you rusty."

Fortunately Hammers didn't need the penalty in the end as they eventually ran out as 4-2 winners, however the player who should have been awarded the penalty, Grady Diangana, was on the receiving end of an outrageous over the top tackle in the build up to West Ham's third and Felipe Anderson's second goal. The referee rightly played the advantage with Anderson duly scoring, but the ferocity of the tackle by James Tarkowski was only punished with a yellow card, if Mark Noble's card against Leicester was a justifiable red, which it was, then why on earth didn't Tarkowski receive the same?

It was only Diangana's athleticism that prevented him from receiving serious injury from what could have been a career ending tackle, one which would have looked more in place at an NFL match but even then would probably have been sanctioned! The only reason more wasn't made of the 'incident' at the time was because West Ham had just retaken the lead after letting Burnley claw their way back in to the game twice, the sense of relief was so palpable among players and fans alike that no one seemed to want to dredge the tackle up. Things might well have been entirely different had the ball not ended up in the back of the net. While Grady Diangana was flying through the air Marko Arnoutovic had already begun to look very angry and sought to 'remonstrate' with the player and the referee. However in the heat of the moment Arnie's anger dissipated with the joy of scoring and the referee retrospectively issued a yellow card to James Tarkowski.

Because James Tarkowski was given a yellow card by Roger East during the match he will escape further sanction, this seems ridiculous given the amount of TV evidence available. It should be remembered that Tarkowski was none too pleased to have been outmuscled and robbed of the ball by Marko Arnoutovic for Hammers first goal, an event that 'Arnie' took great pleasure in rubbing the England defender's nose in it by having a word in his ear right after scoring! Tarkowski's demeanor was further darkened by the fact that Diangana was 'skinning' him and fellow defender Charlie Taylor for pace making them look much slower and more stupid than they actually were, this may explain the 'intensity' and execution of the tackle carried out by the newly selected England defender who also had the unenviable task of trying to keep an eye out for Felipe Anderson who was dominating the game.

It is not good to wish ill on a player, but Tarkowski needs to 'review' that tackle and count his lucky stars that he didn't seriously injure one of the 'stars' of the future, a player who might well join him in the England set up in the not too distant future, now that would be interesting. Diangana has not been 'tainted' by the candour and contempt that the Barclays Premier League can induce, he is a breath of fresh air and Hammers fans should enjoy him while they can, and maybe one day they will be able to say I was there when his illustrious career began. - Ed

Share

Comments

mcbikeman's picture

And yes it was a deffo red card but instead of the refs being consistent in there rulings it seems that it changes with every ref as to what they determine is a fair tackle to a foul to a yellow/red card...of course they are human and make mistakes but we are not talking about a complicated decision here and as they are now allegedly professionals and training week in week out you have to ask doing what? the laughable pens palace got against the gooners last week and yet Bournemouth and ours not given? this week so WTF is going on at there training centre and what sanctions do they get? ahhh we are not allowed to no as we could not possibly understand lol ....Ref = whatever I feel like doing today I will and F**K anyone who dares ask a question as we are above everyone and we will never reveal our secrets.

up
115 users have voted.

Another definite yellow that should have been given was Snodgrass being tugged back and eventually the referee playing the advantage. But instead of going back to award the yellow, he just seemed to tell Snodgrass that he gave the advantage to him. That was ridiculous as well.

up
70 users have voted.

The referee seemed way out of his depth for the whole match which is what it looked like from where I was sitting. Too scared to give any red cards let alone the yellow one he should have given for pulling Snodgrass back. I think Burnley sensed the referee was weak and basically resorted to very physical tactics knowing they would get away with it. No one was injured badly thankfully but this referee should not be allowed to officiate another Premier League game imo. Roll on VAR when not only will bad decisions be overturned but referee's will also be banned for making them.

up
134 users have voted.

A D Bonds

Next Fixture(s)