Premier League issues head-scratching statement after frenzy of red cards in Merseyside derby | OneFootball

The Premier League has issued a frankly pointless statement following the litany of red cards shown by Michael Oliver after the final whistle in Wednesday’s Merseyside derby.

Nobody was sent off during the match itself, which was littered with controversial incidents, but all hell broke loose after full-time in Liverpool’s final visit to Goodison Park.

Abdoulaye Doucoure lit the touchpaper by needlessly celebrating in front of the travelling support after James Tarkowski’s stoppage-time equaliser deprived the Reds of two points, with Curtis Jones provoked into taking matters into his own hands as he confronted the Everton midfielder.

They both received red cards, as did Arne Slot and his assist Sipke Hulshoff, with the LFC head coach being sanctioned for what appeared to be nothing more than a vigorous handshake.

Image via TNT Sports

Premier League statement on Merseyside derby red cards

After all that chaos, the Premier League Match Centre on X issued a statement on the various punishments dished out by Oliver, but in truth it was rather uninformative.

It read: “The referee issued second yellow cards and red cards to Curtis Jones and Abdoulaye Doucouré following an altercation after the final whistle. Arne Slot and his assistant Sipke Hulshoff were also shown straight red cards after the final whistle.”

A pointless statement from the Premier League

Thanks for that, chaps. Well done on telling us the bleeding obvious – we saw all that for ourselves.

How about trying to give us an explanation as to why those red cards were issued, or what Oliver’s justification was for any number of contentious decisions during the match itself.

The ‘foul’ by Ibrahima Konate on Iliman Ndiaye for the free kick from which Beto scored; the failure to show Idrissa Gueye a second yellow card; the fouls on Mo Salah and Konate in the lead-up to James Tarkowski’s equaliser which went unpunished; the additional added time on top of the original allotment…

We won’t hear a peep from the referee as to why he made those decisions, and at best we’ll get Howard Webb spouting hot air about the various controversies from last night in a hollow, stage-managed production which dodges the questions we all want answered.

The media in this country love proclaiming the Premier League as the best domestic football competition in the world, but efforts to improve the standard of refereeing in the division have been minimal to nonexistent, and that’s just not good enough considering how much is at stake at such an elevated level in the game.