A former Premier League referee has spoken exclusively to GIVEMESPORT and offered his opinion on whether Luke Shaw was lucky to escape a red card for his part in the confrontation that resulted in Rodrigo Bentancur's dismissal in the fixture between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
With Spurs sat bottom of the table without a win, and Manchester United struggling to find form at the start of Michael Carrick's first full season as manager of the club, some fans had dubbed the fixture between the pair on Saturday afternoon as a 'relegation six-pointer', sarcastically mocking the poor performances from two of the Premier League's so-called 'big six'.
But it was clear to see that both sides were itching to get the advantage from the outset, fighting for every loose ball and sliding into every 50/50 without hesitation. Tensions quickly started to boil as the game progressed, particularly after Bryan Mbeumo put the hosts in front after 73 minutes with a shot driven low, across the goal and away from Spurs' goalkeeper, Antonin Kinsky.
Tottenham boss Roberto De Zerbi turned to Uruguayan midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur to regain a foothold in the game, but his eagerness to make his mark on the fixture saw him given his marching orders just over ten minutes after his introduction.
Bentancur's poor tackle leads to melee
In a bid to challenge Luke Shaw for the ball, Bentancur lunged in with a heavy scissor-challenge on the English full-back, prompting Shaw to retaliate by chasing the Uruguayan down and shoving him over. As the Spurs man rose to his feet, he led into Shaw with his head, sparking a scrum of players, substitutes and club staff on the touchline, as tensions reached boiling point.
Unsurprisingly, Bentancur was shown a red card by referee Stuart Attwell, leaving his teammates to try and rescue the game with only ten men. Thankfully for the Uruguayan, Dominic Solanke's glancing header from Sandro Tonali's cross in the second minute of injury-time levelled the game and meant that Spurs didn't leave Old Trafford empty-handed.
But, whilst there was no question about Bentancur's dismissal, some fans were surprised to see Shaw only get given a yellow card for his role in the scuffle. Former Premier League referee Graham Barber spoke exclusively to GIVEMESPORT and offered his verdict on the matter
Bentancur could have avoided the whole incident
Barber started by recognising the fact that Bentancur's shocking tackle initiated the ugly scenes, whilst adding that it would be expected that anyone who has had an injury record similar to that of Shaw would react in a similar way to such a dangerous challenge.
"There's no doubt about the sending off, on a number of counts, and what we have to look at is what caused the incident in the first place. And what caused the incident in the first place, the most shocking tackle on Luke Shaw, who's had his troubles with injury, who's in and out of the team, and Bentancur just launched himself, both feet off the ground, not in control of his body, from distance at pace."
"So when you see that, then you say, OK, that's going to create a reaction to that player who's been offended by that offense."
And whilst pushing an opponent could be seen as violent conduct, Barber, who refereed the 2003 FA Cup final between Arsenal and Southampton, told GMS that he believes the referee came to the correct conclusion, adding: "Could you say that pushing a player over is violent conduct? You potentially could. Obviously, the bigger incident of the two was unquestionably, for a player that goes in like that, gets pushed over and then puts his head into Luke Shaw, is undoubtedly a red card."
"I'm not 100% sure it was violent, I think it was reactionary to a shocking tackle that he thought to himself that he could have been very, very badly injured, but I'm not saying that exonerates his behaviour."