Former West Ham manager Harry Redknapp has admitted the decision to send Fabian Balbuena off against Chelsea was ‘a bit scary’ from the officials involved.
As the Hammers chased the game with ten minutes remaining, centre-back Balbuena was dismissed after VAR had intervened following a clearance and subsequent contact with Blues full-back Ben Chilwell.
The Irons went on to lose the clash 1-0 with Timo Werner scoring the only goal of the match, a damaging defeat for the top-four hopes.
But it was the sending off that has caused the most consternation and Redknapp told Stadium Astro that the events at the London Stadium were wholly confusing.
He’s not sent him off the referee. Who was it (Jon) Moss, who was the VAR tonight? (Peter Bankes was the VAR). He has looked at it and said to him ‘I think you better have another look at this, it could be a red’. He has done, more or less, what he has been told by the VAR. And he has given him a red.
The 74-year-old, who managed the Hammers on 292 occasions, went onto say that there was little difference between Balbuena’s incident and one involving Vladimir Coufal, calling the scrutiny involved ‘scary’.
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West Ham will certainly appeal the punishment handed out to the 14-cap Paraguayan defender and given the backlash will fancy their chances of getting the three-game ban overturned.
Moreover, the Hammers will be desperate to get back to winning ways when they head to Turf Moor next Monday to take on Burnley.
