The Premier League described Tom Cairney's tackle on Dejan Kulusevski as 'serious foul play' after Tottenham were handed a late chance to snatch a winner against Fulham on Sunday. Initially only given a yellow card by referee Darren Bond, Cairney was sent off following a VAR check.
His challenge, a late attempt to win the ball which saw Cairney scrape his studs down Kulusevski's right Achilles, saw the Tottenham man substituted off just moments later. Timo Werner replaced Kulusevski but wasn't able to make a significant change in the match as it ended level.
The points keeps Spurs in the chasing pack for the top four, three points behind Brighton and another two adrift of Chelsea and Arsenal. Fulham are 10th but only one point away from Ange Postecoglou's men with Tottenham only ahead of 13th place Bournemouth by two points.
They had worked a strong position to move up to sixth after Brennan Johnson opened the scoring in north London. That was cancelled out by Cairney's impressive strike which got Fulham back on terms with 25 minutes to play.
He went from hero to zero, though, as VAR officials Craig Pawson and Ian Hussin recommended that Bond review his decision to only book Cairney. The Premier League Match Centre X (formerly Twitter) account explained the method behind the process.
"The referee’s call of yellow card for the challenge by Cairney on Kulusevski is checked by VAR, who recommended an on-field for serious foul play," it says. "The referee then issued a red card to Cairney."
Tottenham couldn't take advantage of the brief extra man in the final 10 minutes. They take on Bournemouth on Thursday night in a bid to get back to winnings ways again after being unable to capitalise on beating Manchester City last weekend.
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