Dermot Gallagher says Bernardo Silva was lucky not to be dismissed for reckless challenge against Newcastle United
A lot of talk about refereeing controversy from the Newcastle United defeat at Manchester City on Saturday has been about the decision to rule out Dan Burn's equaliser after he was pushed into an offside position.
While that was a big incident, it wasn't the only one involving Dan Burn that the officials got wrong on the night, as Bernardo Silva was very lucky not to get sent off for a heavy challenge on the big man.
Less than a minute after being booked, Bernardo Silva launched himself into Dan Burn, who was going up for a clearing header.
There was absolutely no intent to play the ball from Silva, in fact, he wasn't even looking in the general direction of the ball. He just flung himself into Burn to knock him off balance.
Dermot Gallagher thinks Bernardo Silva was lucky to stay on the pitch on Saturday
The referee awarded the free-kick, so he clearly saw the incident, but many felt that it was easily a yellow card offence and should have resulted in his sending off. Dermot Gallagher even called it 'reckless' on Sky Sports' Ref Watch on Monday morning.
"He takes a massive chance, doesn't he? Because if the referee is of the mindset, I think that's a reckless challenge. He doesn't look at the ball, that's the clue."
As with the offside incident, Jay Bothroyd found the whole thing funny. Although in this case, he may have had a point.
The fact that Bernardo Silva is half the size of Dan Burn is what saved him from a second yellow
Bothroyd suggests that the vast size difference between Silva and Burn is probably what saved him, suggesting that had it been Erling Haaland who had jumped into the 6'7" Dan Burn it would have looked a lot worse.
Size shouldn't matter, though; it was the intent, and there was absolutely zero intent for the ball from Silva, his goal was to knock Burn down.
Again, you're just never going to get the rub of the green against a club like Manchester City, especially at their own ground.
