Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher believes Fulham midfielder Andreas Pereira was lucky not to be sent off against West Ham.
Pereira was Fulham’s two-goal hero as they saw off West Ham 2-0 in Sunday’s (14 April) Premier League contest at London Stadium.
However, Gallagher reckons the Brazilian should have been dismissed for a strong challenge on Paqueta, instead of being issued a yellow card.
“I thought he was lucky, personally,” Gallagher said on Sky Sports News [16 April, 11:47am]. “There’s a definite follow-through. If he got a red card he couldn’t complain.”
Paqueta later went in on Sasa Lukic and himself could have been dismissed. Gallagher said of that incident: “On balance, if you look at the first one getting caught on the knee with studs… Looking at this, it’s not very good.
He has no interest in the ball and catches him knee on knee. If he’s given one yellow…”
Lucas Paqueta struggles against Fulham
Quite how Pereira avoided being sent off against West Ham is anyone’s guess. Even Gallagher, who usually sides with the officials, could see it was a red card.
Paqueta was himself perhaps lucky to avoid a sending off, though, as he clearly kicked out at Lukic on what was a hugely frustrating afternoon for him on a personal level.
As we saw with John McGinn in Aston Villa’s loss to Tottenham not so long ago, frustrated challenges such as this usually result in a dismissal.
What this shows is the inconsistencies when it comes to decisions made by Premier League referees. Whether you’re for VAR or against it, surely decisions like this should be down the middle?
Ultimately, though, West Ham were on the end of a defeat they could have no complaints about in terms of the overall team performance.
The Brazil international was disappointing as he was at fault in the build-up to both Fulham goals and struggled to truly get going.
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