Anthony Taylor had a lot on his plate during the Premier League clash between Tottenham and Chelsea on Sunday.
The 46-year-old witnessed two potential red card offences when Moises Caicedo went in high on Pape Sarr and Dejan Kulusevski elbowed Romeo Lavia, opting to dismiss neither player.
Taylor also gave Chelsea two penalties against Tottenham – both of which Cole Palmer converted – on what was a hectic day for the official from Wythenshawe.
However – writing on X – Richard Keys felt a “rank bad refereeing” decision was made.
Richard Keys cannot believe Anthony Taylor failed to send Dejan Kulusevski off
As aforesaid, the Sweden international managed to escape unpunished despite charging into Lavia – who Enzo Maresca admires – with his elbow in an unnaturally high position.
Taylor was staring right at the incident when it happened, but ultimately decided no action needed to be taken – not even a yellow card – and Chelsea ended up needing to substitute the Belgian at the interval.
Discussing the moment online, Keys wrote: “And how Kulusevski stayed on I’ve no idea. Taylor was actually looking at that one. It’s just rank bad refereeing.”
The Caicedo challenge on Sarr had actually come before the Swede’s elbow on Lavia, so it could be argued that Taylor was afraid to dismiss the Tottenham No.21 when question marks would then be asked about why the Ecuadorian also wasn’t dismissed for his lunge.
Dejan Kulusevski of Tottenham Hotspur checks on Romeo Lavia of Chelsea after a clash during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur FC a...
Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images
In many ways, we feel Taylor was evening things up – very little else could explain why a blatant elbow went unpunished, and it surprised us that VAR sided with the referee on this occasion.
Romeo Lavia shows his wounds after Tottenham 3-4 Chelsea
The Chelsea No.45 certainly wasn’t playacting after Kulusevski, who in fairness was brilliant aside from this moment, elbow-charged his head.
Lavia hopped onto Instagram after the London derby to show his wounds, posting a photo of a nasty, deep cut to the side of his head – which you can see below.
Fortunately, the Belgium international seems to have avoided a serious internal head injury – most likely because Chelsea substituted him, with little protection from Taylor or VAR on show to say the least.
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