‘Ndidi’s horrendous tackle on Palmer ticks all the boxes for a red card’

Former Premier League referee Jeff Winter says Wilfred Ndidi should have been sent off for his horrendous tackle of Chelsea midfielder, Cole Palmer in their Premier League match week 12 on Saturday at the King Power Stadium.

Leicester City lost the game 2-1 but Ndidi’s challenge on Palmer dominated the headlines with Enzo Maresca, the Chelsea boss saying the Nigerian did not have the intention to hurt the Blues midfielder.

Winter would have none of that and told Grosvenor Casinos Ndidi should have ben sent for an early shower.

‘The first challenge by Ndidi on Cole Palmer—how that wasn’t a red card, I’ll never know. Referees, commentators, and everyone else are getting confused by the jargon around things like ‘excessive force’ or other technicalities.

‘Ndidi had no chance of getting the ball. When I was refereeing, we were taught to outlaw these dangerous challenges from behind. This wasn’t a mistimed tackle; there was no challenge to be made. He went right through the back of Palmer, caught him, and didn’t slip or misjudge the timing.

‘I’ll always defend a referee who might not have had the best view of an incident due to players blocking his sightline. But VAR? They sat there and watched the replay, just like you and I did. It was a horrendous challenge. It ticks all the boxes for a red card.

‘Andy Madley was the on-field referee, but it was Paul Tierney in VAR. Tierney is an experienced referee, so I don’t understand how he missed this. It will be interesting to see how PGMOL explains it.

‘That incident had me fuming, and it was only 20 minutes into the weekend’s football. There was another challenge in the same game, one described by the commentator as a ‘challenge from yesteryear.’ The player jumped in and was fortunate his timing was slightly off by a split second, or that could’ve been another red card.’