Tottenham defender to get off scot-free despite ‘foul’ on Chelsea star in 2-2 draw

No further action to be taken on Christian Romero pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair in Chelsea’s draw against Tottenham

According to Simon Stone of BBC (h/t Football.London), no further action will be taken regarding the incident involving Christian Romero pulling the hair of Marc Cucurella during the Chelsea-Tottenham Hotspur game at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Before the second Spurs’ equaliser in the dying embers of the game, Romero was seen pulling the hair of Cucurella with considerable force in the Chelsea box. The VAR Mike Dean had a good look at the incident and decided it is not malicious enough to punish the offender.

The Blues manager Thomas Tuchel was also not happy with the decision to not send Romero off. He went on to ask whether pulling of hair is allowed in a football match. Thiago Silva asked the same question when he was subjected to give his opinion on the incident.

The incident alone was enough to warrant questioning of the referee’s and the VAR’s decision. However, the fact that this preceded the last-minute equaliser from Harry Kane from a corner further enraged the Chelsea faithful, and rightly so.

More frustration for Chelsea fans

It was an enthralling London derby that had everything, especially in the second half, including both the managers confronting themselves on two occasions. The Blues were dominant for most parts of this contest, but lacked the cutting edge in the final third to finish Tottenham off.

Although some of the decisions taken in this game were debatable, chiefly around both the Spurs goals, Chelsea would be disappointed that they let two goals in. More importantly, they were not able to kill off some of the chances they created through sumptuous passing.

Coming back to the incident, it was a disgraceful act from Romero. How the VAR can have multiple angles and views of it and decide not to punish the Tottenham defender is beyond understanding of most fans.

Accoding to Sky Sports, Romero won’t face any action as the VAR had a look at the incident and because hair pulling isn’t counted as a foul. That only adds to the frustration of Chelsea fans because it was clear as day that Cucurella was impeded by Romero’s actions.

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No wonder English referees did not get picked up for the 2018 World Cup to man the whistle on the field and only two of them are going to Qatar this winter.