The verbal gymnastics from Shearer and Mills on MotD to justify it were simply insulting. "Look if that's given as a red it wouldn't get overturned. It's definitely a yellow."
What. The. Actual. Fudge.
Shearer doubled down of course, with his usual nonsense about how everyone should be free to clatter goalkeepers. This is the same guy who praises every single player who crashes to the floor at the merest tickle in the penalty area - how many times have we heard him say "if you feel any contact you're entitled to go down"? But when Bowen drags his trailing boot across Mendy's chest that's fine? When Willock dips his shoulder and runs straight through the Palace keeper like he's sacking a quarterback, that's fine? Pretty sure those keepers felt contact.
Probably wandered off-topic slightly, but the point is that most refs are wildly inconsistent. Now either that's accidental and they're all just fairly rubbish at their jobs.... Or they are there to guide matches along certain "narratives", and they do THAT very well indeed. There's a reason, IMHO, that the crowds at the match and the TV audiences at home are not allowed to hear the conversations between the refs and the VAR team.
The pundits make things worse by criticising correct decisions (like Shearer's ranting yesterday about the two incidents I referred to above) and praising bad ones, like the failure to give VVD the red for his deliberate foul on Onana. Their agenda is more clear, based mostly on loyalty towards certain clubs: wait and see how many times Richarlison will be accused of diving now he's joined Spurs. If it gets mentioned at all, it'll be in the context of how he's "grown as a player since leaving Everton, removing the diving from his game".
