Newcastle’s Ritchie escapes with just a yellow after another high tackle
Keith Hackett: He should have seen red just like Mane,
Matt Ritchie admitted he was “lucky” not to suffer the same fate as Sadio Mane and be shown the red card in Newcastle’s win against Swansea yesterday. Just like the Liverpool winger, Ritchie did not intend his high foot to clatter into an opposing player – but unlike Mane, he was spared paying such a costly price.
Refereeing consistency? Inevitably, following the controversial incident at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, this incident will only intensify the debate as to whether a player can be “unintentionally reckless”, but there were few here yesterday who believed Ritchie deserved to be dismissed.
Early in the second half, the Scotland international – again, just like Mane when connecting with Ederson – had his eyes only on the ball as his left boot careered into the face of Alfie Mawson. Experts were immediately asking what was the difference, but the obvious – even if irrelevant – answer was that Mawson was not injured.
And credit to the defender for not making even a starter of it, never mind a meal. Mawson’s manager, Paul Clement, was similarly collegiate afterwards, dismissing it is as “no big deal”. Yet, at the time, Ritchie was extremely worried.
“I had visions of Match of the Day from last night,” Ritchie said. “It was similar, but he [Mawson] came in a bit lower than the one last night – so, I was lucky. I was delighted it was a yellow card, to be honest.”
The issue will no doubt rumble on, but that will not have bothered Newcastle one bit. In truth, this was clearly just what the doctor ordered for Rafael Benitez. He could not be at the Liberty because of an infection following a hernia operation, but Jamaal Lascelles’ winner made one wonder if the Spaniard had ever enjoyed himself so much on a sofa.
Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s owner, would also have been in fine spirits following his side’s second league victory in succession. He offered Benitez the use of his helicopter to travel to South Wales, but in doing so left himself open to charges of why he had not been so generous in the transfer window.
Yet, as Swansea so proudly paraded their celebrated acquisitions, and then watched Renato Sanches and the returning Wilfried Bony do not very much at all, Ashley should have breathed a few sighs of relief. For now, at least.
Newcastle just about deserved this, despite Tammy Abraham somehow not converting when rounding Rob Elliot. But for Lukasz Fabianski’s remarkable save from Joselu’s effort, the visitors would have gone in with the advantage. And Swansea would have nobody to blame but themselves after 45 minutes in which they controlled the ball but did nothing with it.
A measure of their profligacy with possession was exemplified by the fact that Mawson’s header in the 36th minute was their first touch in the opposition area.
Swansea improved after the break but other than the excellent Jordan Ayew there was a chronic lack of creativity. Newcastle sensed their chance and Lascelles rose to the task from Ritchie’s pinpoint corner – well, it had to come from him, didn’t it? – in the 76th minute.
Swansea’s zonal marking system was exposed and it led to a second home league loss in as many games.
“It was very frustrating,” Clement said. “I’m finding it difficult to understand why I saw what I saw. Although the margin of defeat is very small, ultimately decided by a set-play, for me the difference in the two teams in the performance was much greater than that.”
Benitez would no doubt agree. His assistant Francisco de Miguel Moreno revealed that the manager had a phone in his hand at his Wirral home as well as the remote.
“Rafa was talking with us,” Moreno said. “Mikel [Antia, the first-team coach] was on the touchline and Antonio [Gomez Perez, another assistant] was speaking to Rafa. This plan worked perfectly. Rafa is happy and hopefully he will rejoin us next week.”