Chelsea learn brutal new Lisandro Martinez referee verdict after Man Utd as VAR point made

Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter believes Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez could "easily" have been sent off for his late challenge on Cole Palmer.

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca was left furious after Martinez's lunge caught Palmer, who was rolling around on the floor afterwards. The incident happened in stoppage time of the 1-1 draw at Old Trafford and the VAR did have a look-over the challenge but decided not to overrule Rob Jones' decision to give Martinez a yellow card.

"This shouldn't affect the referee's decision, but he possibly didn't catch him as badly as he could have done," Winter said to Grosvenor Casino. "But when you look, if it was a slightly late tackle you could feel for the defender, but he was nowhere near the ball, it was the other side of him.

"I think the commentator saying it was an orange card was a very kind assessment of that, because it could have quite easily have been a red. One thing that happened in that incident, I was always taught as a referee, if you're going to send a player off when there's been a really bad tackle, no matter how good the potential advantage is, you don't play on.

"Because if that potential advantage breaks down then there's repercussions between players and the action, so you can totally lose control of the game. When if you'd have just stopped the game and issued an early red card, it would have calmed it all down.

"So, I think the referee who did have a good game and was well placed, I think he's immediately known it's not a red card in his mind, but I think Martinez, not for the first time in his career, was rather fortunate with that one.

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"A different referee, a different day, and this is the frustrating thing about VAR, sometimes it uses a little bit of common sense and says leave it to the referee. Other times, needlessly, in my opinion, they get involved."

The Premier League's official 'Match Centre' account on social media site X released a statement following the incident: "The referee issued a yellow card to Martinez for a challenge on Palmer. VAR checked for a potential red card and confirmed the referee's call of no red card, deeming that it was a reckless challenge."

Maresca confirmed after the game that Palmer was in the changing room with an ice-pack placed on his left knee as he felt the pain from the challenge. The Chelsea head coach, when asked by football.london, said: "He was there in the changing room with ice. We are waiting now.

"Hopefully it is nothing important and then I know you are going to ask me about the referee's decision. They showed me before the press conference, I think it is quite clear almost for all of us but the referees there did not take the decision and they made a different decision."

Palmer is not in the UEFA Conference League squad so the Chelsea attacker will take no part in Thursday evening's European clash with Noah. The 22-year-old will hopefully be involved in the Blues' Premier League clash with Arsenal at the weekend.

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