Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has been sharing his thoughts on the two yellow-card offences that Aston Villa midfielder Douglas Luiz picked up during the club’s 1-0 win over Wolves at the weekend.
The Brazilian was sent off after picking up a second yellow card in the late stages of the match at Molineux for leading into a jump with his elbow that caught Wolves winger Daniel Podence, before Anwar El Ghazi scored a late penalty to secure the three points for Dean Smith’s side.
Speaking exclusively to This Is Futbol, Halsey had this to say on Luiz’s sending-off.
He said: “Looking at his two yellow cards, I think the first one was harsh – I mean, there was nothing in it, the player’s gone down easy.
“I don’t think you can have any complaints about his second caution. Players have got to realise you cannot go into challenges leading with your arm. It was reckless, so I think he deserved his second caution, but I think the first caution – I think Mike Dean could have managed that better.”
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Luiz’s red card means that he will be unavailable to play in Villa’s next Premier League game against Burnley, which takes place on Thursday.
Given how Luiz has so far managed to earn himself a pretty uninspiring season rating of 6.67/10 across the 10 performances he’s made in the league so far this season (according to WhoScored), this shows that he may not be a huge loss to Villa against Burnley.
Even though Halsey thinks Luiz’s second yellow card was a correct decision from Dean, it’s disappointing to hear that he thinks the first incident should have been just given as a foul, as perhaps on another day, Luiz will have got away with receiving just the one caution.
Either way, Villa and Smith will now have to look forward to their match against the Clarets and try and pick a team that will be best suited to winning without Luiz in it.