Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has admitted that Marcus Rashford was saved from a red card in Man United’s draw with Aston Villa by the actions of his teammate Diogo Dalot.
The Manchester club played out a 0-0 draw with Unai Emery’s team at Villa Park and it is a result that may save Erik ten Hag’s job going into the international break.
However, Villa fans will feel hard done by as a red card for Marcus Rashford could have resulted in their team picking up all three points.
During the second half of the match, the winger tripped up Leon Bailey while on a yellow card as Aston Villa attacked and many felt it was worthy of a second booking given the intended nature of the tackle.
The Man United star’s intentions were clearly to trip up the Aston Villa star and as a result, the home side should have had a man advantage for the remainder of the clash at Villa Park.
Instead, Rashford received a final warning from the referee and in the aftermath of the controversial decision, former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has stated that the Englishman was “lucky” but was ultimately saved by Diogo Dalot.
Speaking on Sky Sports News’ Ref Watch, Gallagher stated that Dalot coming onto the scene to sweep up the play after Bailey got past Rashford saved his Man United teammate from a second yellow.
“What saves him is Dalot,” the former official said. “If he did get sent off I do think he couldn’t argue too much, but Dalot comes to sweep the ball up so their argument [the officiating team] is that it is not a breaking up a promising attack.”
When put to him that there was no attempt to win the ball, Gallagher did admit that the Englishman “gets a little bit lucky”, which doesn’t help settle the debate.
“He gets a little bit lucky” ?
