Saturday evening’s bore draw between top four contenders Manchester United and Chelsea involved a couple of controversial incidents that many would’ve thought the referee should’ve intervened in.
The game kicked off in this manner, in the early stages of the encounter between the rivals, United playmaker Bruno Fernandes battled with Jorginho in the middle of the park.
The outcome of the moment was pretty surprising, as Fernandes gently slapped his counterpart on the back of the head.
Despite the obvious lack of force from Fernandes, Anthony Martial was sent off for brushing against Erik Lamela’s neck a few weeks ago – so it was surprising to see no action at all from the referee.
VARchester United
Last season Maguire drop kicked Batshuayi’s testicles & VAR were satisfied it was a brilliant tackle, this season Maguire tried to rip Azpilicueta’s head off & Bruno slaps Jorginho VAR were pleased so didn’t bother checking. #CFC #Chelsea #MUNCHE pic.twitter.com/DfTmzIMrPg— CFCObasi_ (@Obasi86428861) October 24, 2020
Hate to see it but if Jorginho goes down holding his face Bruno Fernandes probably gets sent off for that…
— JJ (@_ItsJJ) October 24, 2020
This was a pretty risky move by the Portuguese star, regardless of how little it impacted Jorginho, do you think this could’ve been a red card if the Chelsea star protested and went down after the blow?
Fernandes’ actions were all the more out of the blue given the star’s likeness with Jorginho, the duo are two of the Premier League’s penalty specialists – hitting the back of the net on almost all of their attempts from the spot.
To add to that point, Fernandes showed a harsh lack of respect for the man that actually popularised the hop-skip penalty technique that he’s also adopted.