Richard Keys backs Leon Bailey criticism of Anthony Taylor after Aston Villa beat Manchester United
Lisandro Martinez was “ridiculous” when he clashed with Leon Bailey in the Manchester United defeat to Aston Villa, according to Richard Keys.
The Argentina defender tried to shield the ball out in the second half of the 3-1 Villans victory on Sunday (6 November) and appeared to throw a number of elbows at Bailey in doing so, but no action was taken by Anthony Taylor.
The Jamaica international criticised the officials on Twitter after the game and Keys agreed with him, while getting a dig in at the Daily Mail’s reporting of it.
He wrote on his blog on Monday (7 November): “It was a great win for Villa – and I’m in total agreement with Leon Bailey. Martinez should’ve gone off for his ridiculous challenge on Bailey.
“What did Anthony Taylor not see? Bailey was elbowed twice in the ribs – the second time with real malice. Bailey later tweeted ‘I sometimes wonder why we’ve got VAR. Smh’.
“The Daily Mail felt obliged to spell out for us what the letters stood for. Honestly – what planet do their journalists inhabit? Ffs. (Look it up guys)”.
Risky
Martinez appears to have got away without punishment because the most pronounced coming together sees his elbow largely miss Bailey.
The officials have probably focused on that as a relatively even coming together, without noticing that both before after he seems to make less obvious but more direct contact with the Villa man.
In a different situation the video assistant easily could have got involved and likely a red card would have resulted, but on this occasion it didn’t make a key difference.
In Unai Emery’s first game in charge it was a very similar atmosphere to Aaron Danks’ first, but the new permanent boss will hope to maintain the improvement for somewhat longer.
Goals from Bailey, Lucas Digne and Jacob Ramsey secured the biggest result of the season so far, and increased the optimism around the appointment of the former Villarreal manager hugely.
Where just weeks ago the players looked devoid of confidence it was a completely different story at Villa Park this weekend, vindicating the decision to remove Steven Gerrard.
In other Aston Villa news, Emery’s Arsenal successor Mikel Arteta welcomed him back into the Premier League.