At the start of this entrancing match at Stamford Bridge, just 3 minutes in to the game, Marc Cucurella dropped a sneaky body check on David Brooks.
It wasn’t exactly criminal – it’s the kind of thing you see almost every game. But it was a certain yellow if the ref spots it.
The winger waited a while for his revenge – but boy did he get it. At the start of the second half, as Chelsea looked to break forward from a corner at their end, Brooks ran across Cucurella and got an arm around his neck and also managed to get a handful of the Spaniard’s curly locks as he passed.
The referee gave nothing – then was sent to the screen by the VAR because of a potential red card.
You can see the incident in the clip embedded here:
don’t see how Brooks escaped a sending off for this. recommendation was a red for violent conduct, referee has watched this and decided to give Brooks a …yellow? a farce, as usual. pic.twitter.com/648ofQ9O7k
— amadí (@amadoit__) January 14, 2025
[Footage from Premier League Productions]
HOW IS THIS A YELLOW? 😭 pic.twitter.com/EENfVmuHAt https://t.co/5Bn14p7JxW
— TLV (fan) (@TheLampardView) January 14, 2025
[Footage from TNT Sport]
VAR once again proves it makes the game worse without eliminating even obvious errors
Of course, the ref decided it was a yellow not a red, despite VAR only really having called him over for one reason.
If deliberately using your hands around the neck to bring someone to ground isn’t violent conduct… what is violent conduct?
#CHEBOU – 53’
VAR recommended an on-field review for a possible red card to Brooks for violent conduct. Upon review, the referee deemed that the challenge on Cucurella was a reckless action and not violent conduct – and issued a yellow card to Brooks.
— Premier League Match Centre (@PLMatchCentre) January 14, 2025
That would soon have been forgotten, but the fact that Bournemouth scored their second soon after to take the lead makes it that much more scandalous.
We will be hearing a lot more about this in the week, that’s for sure.
We really try not to go on too much about refereeing – and Chelsea certainly need to blame themselves to a large degree for today’s result. But when you have to suffer the tedium of VAR and it still can’t send a player off for a clothesline, even we can’t resist a complaint.
