Premier League release statement on Cristian Romero incident amid Tottenham controversy vs Man United
Cristian Romero was shown a straight red card for his challenge on Man United midfielder Casemiro on Saturday.
Tottenham went into the half-time break 1-0 down to Man United on Saturday, and Thomas Frank‘s side face a huge battle to get back into the game now.
It’s another must-win game for the Spurs boss too, with his side winless in their last six Premier League games.
Romero had blasted Tottenham’s board over the lack of fit first-team players following the 2-2 draw with Man City, but he’s now furthered that issue at Old Trafford.
Premier League release Cristian Romero red card statement
As detailed in the above graphic from Sofascore, Romero was on the pitch for just 29 first half minutes against Man United on Saturday, before being given his marching orders.
Romero was dribbling with the ball out of defence, but was quickly closed down by Casemiro, with the pair then clashing in a 50-50 challenge.
The Tottenham captain followed through when trying to make the clearance though, and clearly left his right boot high on Casemiro’s left ankle, which was planted into the ground.
It didn’t appear that Romero was intending to hurt Casemiro though, and it didn’t look as though the Spurs defender knew an awful lot about the United midfielder steaming in on the ball.
But, in a statement released by the Premier League Match Centre via X after the incident, it’s been explained why referee Michael Oliver came to his decision.
“The referee’s call of red card to Romero for serious foul play was checked and confirmed by VAR – with it deemed that the challenge was made with excessive force and endangered an opponent,” the Premier League have confirmed.
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Romero will now miss some crucial Spurs games
It remains to be seen whether any further punishment will be taken against Romero, but as it stands, he is now going to miss Tottenham’s next four matches.
As such, he’s going to be unavailable for games against Newcastle, Fulham and Crystal Palace, as well as the big one, the North London derby against Arsenal on 22 February.
Given what he said about Tottenham’s lack of fit first-team players last weekend, he’s certainly not helped that situation now.
Spurs’ centre-back ranks were already stretched incredibly thin ahead of the Man United game, and now Frank only has Micky van de Ven, Radu Dragusin and 17-year-old Jun’ai Byfield to turn to, with both Kevin Danso and Ben Davies still out.