Leeds United would have been fortunate to see Gabriel Magalhaes sent off on Sunday despite his kick out against Patrick Bamford.
This has been suggested by the former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher who has been speaking on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch about the VAR incident at Elland Road.
Jesse Marsch’s men endured a frustrating afternoon in Yorkshire as they fell just short to the league leaders, Arsenal, in a game filled with controversy.
With the Gunners leading deep into the game, Leeds were handed a penalty after Gabriel was red-carded for kicking out against Bamford in the dying minutes.
However, VAR turned the decision around and reduced the Arsenal man’s punishment to a yellow card which Gallagher has praised whilst speaking on Sky Sports:
“There’s no doubt he’s flipped out. I think it’s petulant. I think it’s reckless at worst, but it’s not violent for me. And I think the good thing about that is that as I said the VAR has said it’s a free-kick to Arsenal, which it was. The first foul was by Bamford and it would be very, very unfair to have the centre-half serving a three-match ban for what wasn’t an act of violent conduct.”
TIF Thoughts on Gallagher’s comments…
We find it difficult to understand how VAR and the referee can look at the kick out from the Arsenal man, acknowledge it for what it is and claim it is not worthy of a red card.
Should Gabriel have been sent off?
Yes
No
We do agree that it was probably the correct decision to rescind the penalty after Bamford barged into the Brazilian defender.
However, it is so difficult to figure how Chris Kavanagh believes kicking out in that fashion is only worthy of a yellow card. Especially when there are clear examples of players being sent off for the same in the past.