By Emmanuel Okogba
Mike Dean who was on VAR duty in the game between Chelsea and Tottenham last weekend has admitted he got it wrong by not advising centre referee, Anthony Taylor to visit the monitor when Cristian Romero pulled Marc Cucurella’s hair in the build up to Harry Kane’s late equalizer.
Ivan Perisic’s corner kick was headed in by Kane in the 95th minute, but not before the scuffle that should have required the attention of Dean and Taylor.
Replays of the incident shows Romero pulling the hair of Cucurella who was trying to defend the initial corner kick.
Dean has now said, in hindsight he should have advised Taylor to visit the pitchside monitor for a personal assessment of the incident.
“I could not award a free kick as VAR, but I could recommend to Taylor that he visit the referee review area to consider a possible red card. In the few seconds I had to study [Cristian] Romero pulling [Marc] Cucurella’s hair, I didn’t deem it a violent act. I’ve since studied the footage… and I should have asked Taylor to visit his pitch-side monitor,” Dean said in a statement as per Daily Mail
The heated encounter also saw a confrontation between Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte during and after the game which led to them being red carded.
