Lineker demands VAR change after ‘naughty’ incident in Chelsea, Arsenal draw – ‘I mean, really?!’

Gary Lineker has called for a VAR change after Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo was shown a red card during his side’s 1-1 draw against Arsenal.

Chelsea and Arsenal played out a heated derby at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, as seven yellow cards were shown and Caicedo was sent off.

Caicedo was dismissed for a high challenge on Arsenal star Mikel Merino, which had a huge impact on the game.

Before this incident, Chelsea were comfortably the better side and they arguably deserved all three points, but they were made to settle for a point as Merino’s header cancelled out Trevoh Chalobah’s opener.

Lineker thinks Caicedo deserved to be sent off, but he reckons VAR should avoid showing incidents in “slow motion”.

“I don’t think they should have slow motion for things like that. It’s the same when you see still shots of peoples’ feet,” Lineker said on The Rest is Football podcast.

READ: 16 Conclusions from Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal: Caicedo, Chalobah, cards and carelessness

“His foot wasn’t raised, it was on the ground, he was a millisecond late for the ball and slow motion makes it look terrible.

“I understand exactly why they possibly overturned the decision but, I mean, really?!”

He added: “I don’t even think that would have been a foul in my day, let alone a red card.

“I just think slow motion distorts what actually happens because it’s like: hit the ball, dum, dum… the foot bounces on the ground.

“If he’s got his foot in the air and above the ball, that used to be over the top, red card definitely.

“But these ones now… I mean it looks terrible in slow motion, I get it, but when you see it, and I watched it lots of times in normal speed, it was actually just a fraction.”

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Alan Shearer, meanwhile, argued that it was a “naughty” challenge from Caicedo.

“I agree with you in terms of in your day and my day, yeah, it wouldn’t have been a red card, it was probably a normal tackle,” Shearer responded.

“But I think that when you challenge like that then you run the risk of giving the referee or the VAR the chance to send you off.

“I thought it was a bit naughty, I thought it was high and I thought his foot was planted and it was well above the ankle.

“But to see it was well above the ankle you had to put it on a freezeframe, therefore, in today’s game, you can’t argue with the referee and him, eventually, however they got there, giving the red card. It was a red card, yeah.”

Shearer was also “really surprised” that Caicedo was the only player sent off during Sunday’s London derby.

“I thought it was a really scrappy, bitty game, with loads of fouls, loads of players going over and pretending to be injured and hurt, trying to get others booked,” Shearer continued.

“It was a bit of a scrappy game all the way through so that’s why I thought it was just a stupid tackle. You’re inviting the referee to do that.

“Actually, I was really surprised no one got sent off in the second half as well because I thought he might even it up here.

“To his credit, Anthony Taylor, I thought he refereed it really well. It was a tough game to referee because of the actions of a lot of the players.”