Premier League panel rules Cole Palmer challenge should have resulted in straight red

The Premier League’s Independent Key Match Incidents Panel has ruled that Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer should have been sent off during his side’s 2-0 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur on 24 October.

The decision comes shortly after Spain’s Technical Committee of Referees admitted that the penalty awarded to Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe against Racing Santander was incorrect.

Mbappe’s spot-kick came during Real Madrid’s 3-0 victory in the 11th round of La Liga. The Spanish committee said the contact between Mbappe and defender Mateo Prati did not justify a penalty and accepted that a serious refereeing error had been made.

Palmer challenge judged worthy of red

Palmer was shown a yellow card by referee Chris Kavanagh in the 70th minute after pushing Tottenham midfielder Matheus Fernandes. He was later dismissed after receiving a second yellow card for a challenge on Conor Gallagher.

However, the five-member panel voted 3-2 that Palmer’s first incident should have been punished with a direct red card. The majority concluded that he had deliberately made head contact with Fernandes and that the action was unnecessary, dangerous and carried out with excessive force.

“The majority considered that Palmer’s actions towards Fernandes involved clear contact with the head and were unnecessary, dangerous and carried out with excessive force,” the panel said in a ruling published by the Premier League.

All five members agreed, however, that video assistant referee John Brooks was right not to intervene. They concluded that Kavanagh’s decision to show a yellow card did not meet the threshold of a “clear and obvious error” requiring VAR intervention.

The panel also backed the decision to issue Palmer with a second yellow card in the 80th minute, with four members voting in favour and one against.

Palmer served a one-match suspension and missed Chelsea’s defeat by Liverpool in the League Cup. Had the first incident been treated as a straight red, he would have received a three-match ban.

That would have ruled him out of Chelsea’s 2-0 win against Manchester United, in which he scored a penalty, as well as the team’s next match against Sunderland.

Tottenham penalty decision

The panel also considered an incident involving Tottenham in the same match. By a 3-2 majority, it decided that Tottenham should have been awarded a penalty in the 85th minute after Moises Caicedo fouled Dominic Solanke.

The majority said: “Caicedo was holding Solanke continuously while he was away from the ball, which affected the opponent’s ability to progress.”

Despite that conclusion, the panel unanimously supported the VAR decision not to intervene, on the same basis as the Palmer incident.

Tottenham’s victory was only their second against Chelsea in the league in 36 years. Mike Penders scored an own goal in the 77th minute before Mathys Tel added a second in the closing stages.