Manchester United's Lisandro Martinez was sent off for a second booking and conceded a penalty midway through the second half of Saturday's Premier League match at Stamford Bridge on October 31. The Chosun Ilbo reported on November 2 that British media are even discussing his future at Old Trafford.
Under the headline ‘The fall of the Butcher Man United fans loved,’ the Chosun Ilbo reported on November 2 that Martinez struck an opponent in the face against Chelsea, leading to a red card and a penalty. According to Sky Sports and Yahoo Sports, Chelsea won 2-0. This paper could not read the Chosun article in full, and the British outlet behind the quoted line that ‘time to leave Old Trafford is approaching’ has not been confirmed.
광고 문의 · 300×250Drawing on Sky Sports and other outlets, Morgan Rogers opened the scoring in the 50th minute. Martinez was then booked for pulling back Rogers and soon afterwards raised an arm into Wesley Fofana's face during a corner. Referee Peter Bankes did not penalise it at first, but after a VAR review he reversed the decision in the 62nd minute.
The Question: Was He Playing the Ball?
In a statement on October 31, the Premier League Match Centre account said the referee overturned the no-penalty call after VAR, showed Martinez a second yellow card and awarded Chelsea a penalty. In short, VAR judged that Martinez was not attempting to play the ball. Yahoo Sports said the two bookings came 1 minute 22 seconds apart.
Cole Palmer converted the spot kick to make it 2-0, though the minute of his goal could not be confirmed from the material available to us. With ten men, United created almost nothing, and Yahoo Sports judged that the dismissal ended any hope of a comeback.
Reactions From the Manager and Pundits
According to Sky Sports, manager Michael Carrick did not criticise Martinez in public and called the red card and penalty a ‘big moment.’ TNT Sports commentator Ally McCoist, by contrast, called the challenge ‘unacceptable.’ The outlets also noted that Carrick did not look at Martinez as he walked down the tunnel.
One red card does not by itself settle a player's future. The club's handling of the matter and the length of Martinez's suspension had not been officially announced as far as we could confirm. This paper will report further once Manchester United state their position.