Ray Parlour revealed that he was amazed that Mike Dean decided to award West Ham defender Arthur Masuaku a yellow card for his challenge on Ahmed Elmohamady during the Hammers’ 0-0 draw with Aston Villa.
The former Arsenal player joked that if Masuaku’s foul was worthy of a yellow card then most sides would have ended up with eight men on the pitch most weeks during his playing career.
Parlour insisted that Masuaku didn’t make contact with Elmohamady and claimed it was a harsh yellow card to receive even when you don’t consider it was the defender’s second booking of the match.
“Again was that a sending off for you? I was amazed that he got another yellow card for that,” said Parlour on talkSPORT (7:53am, Wednesday, September 18th).
“I mean we would have finished with eight men most weeks when I played, if (Alan Brazil told Parlour that Danny Mills said it was a red card if Masuaku caught Elmohamady)… what do you mean if? He didn’t!
“I thought it would have been a bit harsh if he hadn’t been booked and had got a yellow card for that.”
OPINION
Masuaku ended up receiving a red card as a result of his foul on Elmohamady, as he has previously been booked in the first half of the match, and it seems Parlour clearly doesn’t believe Dean was right to send the Hammers left-back off. However, while it was a harsh red card, to say the least, Masuaku did get too close to Elmohamady and made it easy for the Aston Villa flyer to convince the referee that he had been unfairly brought down. As a result, the Hammers now have to cope without Masuaku on Sunday when they face Manchester United as he is now suspended for the clash. The 25-year-old will be a noticeably miss as he has been impressive this season. Masuaku has featured four times for West Ham this season, averaging a rating of 7.31 in the process and aside from registering an assist, he has been a force at the back as on average he has made four tackles per game, 1.5 interceptions and 1.8 clearances (Source: WhoScored).
