A decision in Chelsea’s game against Tottenham last April, with Pawson the referee, is worthy of comparison.
Pape Matar Sarr won the ball off Moises Caicedo before striding forward to score.
But Sarr had committed a foul on Caicedo, making clear contact with his studs around the knee of the Chelsea midfielder.
The VAR, Jarred Gillett, sent Pawson to the monitor to disallow the goal. Pawson considered the merits of a red card but Gillett was insistent the challenge was only reckless and a yellow card.
Gillett made a point of showing the challenge in real speed to determine the sanction. Like Pawson on Saturday, Gillett said contact was glancing.
In both cases there was a buckle of the opponent’s knee to indicate a degree of force. Dalot had a straight leg though, which is an indicator of greater force.
In his Match Officials Mic’d Up show afterwards PGMO boss Howard Webb backed a yellow card.
Webb said: “It would have been incorrect to send him off because it’s not excessive force, it’s a reckless contact, so yellow card.”
PGMO would likely say the Dalot decision shows it is being consistent – especially as the same referee was involved in both incidents.
There was no real controversy over the Sarr sanction, no clamour for a red card.
Maybe that was because there was a VAR review to rule out the goal, that the referee had watched the incident again and made his own decision. The KMI Panel did not log the yellow card as an error.
The comments of the referee to the VAR are key. If Taylor has seen the contact of studs on knee and made his own judgement call on that aspect then it is tough for the video referee to get involved.
It is still possible for the VAR to tell the referee he has made a misjudgement over the force in the challenge. But if the referee does give a good description it limits the scope for a review.
Referees are looking for prolonged contact. So if, like with Dalot and Sarr, the full boot makes contact with the leg but it comes off quickly that would be considered glancing.
Compare it to the VAR red card Curtis Jones received in September 2023. It is a decision which still angers Liverpool fans.
Jones contact with the shin of Yves Bissouma and pushed through into the leg as he slid forward to try to play the ball.
PGMO would say this was not present with Dalot’s challenge, so it was “glancing”.
That is a hard sell and most would seem to accept this as a VAR red card.
