Everton midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is serving a one-match suspension after picking up five bookings and former Premier League striker Darren Bent reckons the rules need to be relaxed
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall argues with referee Sam Barrott after receiving a yellow card during the match between Everton and West Ham United at Hill Dickinson Stadium on September 29, 2025
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall argues with referee Sam Barrott after receiving a yellow card during the match between Everton and West Ham United at Hill Dickinson Stadium on September 29, 2025
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Everton midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s controversial suspension should be the prompt to force a major changes in the laws of English football. That’s the view of a former Premier League star after the Blues’ £25million summer signing from Chelsea picked up a one-match ban for this Sunday’s home game with Crystal Palace.
The punishment comes after Dewsbury-Hall was booked in his last five consecutive Premier League matches, including distinctly dubious cautions in the side’s last two fixtures in the competition, for taking a free-kick ‘too quickly’ against Liverpool and then making what made saw as a legitimate challenge on West Ham United’s Kyle Walker-Peters.
The 27-year-old himself took to social media to vent his frustrations and writing on X, he said: “Forgive me if I’m wrong, and I might be, but some of these decisions are so hard to take. Mind boggling.”
Now Darren Bent, who made 276 Premier League appearances for Ipswich Town, Charlton Athletic, Tottenham Hotspur, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Fulham, netting 106 goals, has leapt to Dewsbury-Hall’s defence by claiming it’s time to relax the ruling.
Everton News cite the 41-year-old from Tooting as telling talkSPORT: “Yeah, it’s ridiculous. I think they need to increase the number first and foremost.
“I think they should increase the number. And the reason why you just said it there, five yellows in six games, is because you get booked for anything now.
“Absolutely anything. It’s the days of crunching challenges and then you go sorry ref next one and then you get booked.
“I mean them days are gone. I mean you get booked for a shirt a shirt tug.
“If the referee gives a decision you don’t like and you show passion you throw the ball against the floor you get booked.”
Dewsbury-Hall has also received support from a seemingly unlikely ally in the shape of former Everton nemesis Mark Clattenburg.
Clattenburg became a persona non grata among many Evertonians following his officiating at a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on October 20, 2007 as at the time of year when many were gearing up for Halloween, the County Durham man-in-the-middle endured a horror show that was so bad that he wasn’t handed another assignment at the ground during David Moyes’ first spell in charge.
However, the now retired match official told The Boot Room: “Personally, I think the referee could have played on as he plays the ball and his foot accidentally hits his opponent’s foot in the follow-through.
“Dewsbury-Hall can be disappointed that he will get a one-match suspension for his fifth yellow card.
“This disappointment was even made worse when, in the last week, he was given a yellow card late in the match against Liverpool for taking a quick free-kick, which I believe the referee could have managed in a better way.”