Quote:
Originally Posted by too_hot
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anyway, i dun tink it was worthy of a red (honestly). it was a pretty standard kind of yellow card foul. the immediate body language of the referee after the sending off seems to tell me he had some regret and dat the referee partially tried to make amends by sending dat arsenal player off at the end. if he had not sent joe off, he may not have given the 2nd yellow...
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2 footed lunges are always tough calls for referees. unless you are right in front of the crime scene, else it's very hard to judge if the player used both his legs to lunge at the opponent's legs.
i watched the replay a few times and i think the ref probably had no choice as cole appeared to let fly both legs. Ref could have made a 'home ground' decision by letting cole off with a yellow but he stood firm. probably he wanted to send a strong early warning to all the other clubs that the EPL will not cordon dangerous plays.
look at it positively, cole got his red so early in his 1st competitive epl game. he will mature with more games and hopefully will not be so recklessly dumb in the future.
his creative flair to unlock manc's defence will be sorely missed in our next game.