Tottenham Hotspur fans may feel incredibly lucky to have seen their side end the game on Saturday with all 11 men still on the pitch after this footage emerged on Twitter.
It was their new Swedish winger, Dejan Kulusevski, who was the man at the centre of the controversy in north London on Saturday as the Lilywhites fell to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Should Kulusevski have been sent off?
Yes
No
The 21-year-old has made an electric start to life at Spurs since joining from Juventus on loan in January, however, Saturday’s game may have been the first tarnish on his career at Spurs so far.
Not only did the Swede fail to provide any attacking threat with no shots at all, but in the first half, the winger swung an elbow in the direction of the Brighton man Marc Cucurella.
To the defender’s credit, the minimal contact was not taken advantage of and he did not go to the ground to emphasise his point to the referee, Craig Pawson.
However, the intent certainly seemed to be there from Kulusevski who was only shown a yellow card for the incident before being hooked by Antonio Conte in the second half (via Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on the incident…
We think Kulusevski can count himself a very lucky man after walking off the pitch without being shown a red card for the incident.
And the footage to emerge on Twitter does not make it look any better in his favour, but we think it set the tone for what was a poor refereeing display from Pawson.
The Brighton midfielder was already on a yellow card and Pawson waved away two opportunities to hand him another before he was taken off by Graham Potter at half-time.
And Cucurella, himself, may feel fortunate not to have seen any action taken against him as he appeared to get his revenge on the Swede with a nasty stamp on Kulusevski’s ankle.
In other news: ‘Offered nothing’ – Alasdair Gold slams 4/10 Spurs ace with just 20% pass accuracy