David Moyes claimed in a BBC interview that Bournemouth's Simon Francis would've been sent off anywhere else in Europe for dangerous play when attempting a neck-high challenge on West Ham's Cheikhou Kouyate.
However as the video below proves, that also applied rather closer to home just four years ago when Manchester United's Nani was dismissed for a similar challenge on former West Ham defender Alvaro Arbeloa during a 2013 Champions League clash at Old Trafford.Turkish referee Cuneyt Cakir incurred the wrath of then-Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson when dismissing Nani during a game in which the hosts fell to a 3-2 defeat.
Ferguson was said to be so distraught by the decision to dismiss Nani that he refused to speak with the media after the game. However his former charge Roy Keane wasn't afraid to speak out against his old boss, insisting that Cakir "made the right call" at the time.
"It’s dangerous play," retorted Keane, who was covering the game for ITV in his capacity as a pundit. "It’s a red card". Fellow pundit Lee Dixon, formerly of Arsenal, agreed. "If he sees that as dangerous play, whether there's any intent or not, he has to send him off," he added.
Embed from Getty Images
Francis was only shown a yellow card for his equally-dangerous tackle on Kouyate - one that left the midfielder requiring lengthy treatment - by error-prone referee Bobby Madley during yesterday's meeting between the Cherries and West Ham.
Meanwhile team mate Josh King escaped censure entirely, despite clearly punching Pedro Obiang in the face during an off-the-ball incident that also occured during the first half.
However it was Bournemouth's hugely-controversial 93rd-minute equaliser that left most fans and viewers scratching their heads in disbelief as a poorly-positioned Madley bizarrely overrruled his assistant, who had correctly flagged for an infringement, in order to award a goal that shouldn't have stood in order to deny the Hammers two vital points in their fight against relegation.
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