Alan Shearer has deemed the call made by referee Sam Barrott to not send off Riccardo Calafiori for his ‘deliberate trip’ on Leicester City midfielder Facundo Buonanotte as ‘awful’, after the Foxes’ 4-2 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
Leicester fell two goals behind to their hosts in the first half courtesy of Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, but they hit back in the second period when James Justin netted a brace to draw the visitors level. With the match evenly poised, referee Barrott had a call to make when Calafiori, already booked, stopped Brighton loanee Buonanotte in his tracks during another City attack.
Arsenal, who have seen Trossard and Declan Rice sent off in recent weeks, survived these calls. Indeed Buonanotte was carded for pleading with the referee to dish out marching orders to Italian summer signing Calafiori. The Gunners proceeded to make a late breakthrough in stoppage time and secured all three points, much to Steve Cooper’s bemusement.
Former Newcastle and England striker Shearer had sympathy for City, for being on the wrong end of what he considered to be an ‘awful’ call by the man in the middle to not punish Calafiori for what appeared in plain sight to be an obvious bookable offence.
“I think that’s an awful decision,” Shearer told Premier League Productions. “You can clearly see Calafiori stick his leg out. It’s a deliberate trip. Yellow card that should be. Absolutely. It’s such an important point in the game. To rub salt in the wounds, Buonanotte gets a yellow card instead. Look, he sticks his leg out. It’s a deliberate trip. All day that is a yellow card.”
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