FLYING RITCHIE HAD TO SEE RED
WHEN Matt Ritchie flew in with a high boot towards Alfie Mawson you could see he was clearly worried which colour of card Mike Jones would produce — no doubt after Sadio Mane’s red card the day before.
The aerial challenge was incredibly similar apart from the contact on Mawson, who should be applauded for his calm reaction to the incident.
Jones showed a yellow card, which I think was because he thought there was no contact. Had he seen contact, which was made on the Swansea player’s forearm, then a red card would have had to be shown as the challenge certainly endangered the safety of Mawson.
Mawson’s honesty was in stark contrast to the action of Mikel JURGEN KLOPP will be going bonkers when he sees the replay of Matt Ritchie’s high foot. Or maybe he will use it to get Sadio Mane’s red card overturned.
This was a very similar incident, there were two different decisions and two different punishments. Ritchie gets away with a yellow card, Mane gets a red, his team play with 10 men and then he gets a three-game ban! How is Merino, who produced an outrageous dive in the first half to try to win Newcastle a penalty. Jones was not deceived but was again unsure and so did not caution the Spaniard for simulation.
There can be no retrospective action by the FA as the new law they introduced is only applied after ‘successful deception of a match official’ and Merino was not successful.
That seems a pity as his act was disgraceful and merited the two-match ban. that correct? You could argue that Ritchie’s was worse than Mane’s because it wasn’t in a goalscoring area. Mane made the challenge because he had to. Ritchie didn’t.