Saturday wasn’t a good day for the Blues’ Brazilian contingent. Not only did they lose 1-0 to Aston Villa, but the game at Villa Park also saw compatriots Willian and Ramires sent off.
It was Ramires’ red card, however, that has proved to be the talking point. The 26-year-old was shown a straight red by referee Chris Foy for a late challenge on Karim El Ahmadi.
Sky Sports expert Jamie Redknapp was quick to condemn the challenge at the end of the game.
“This is horrendous, there’s no other way to describe it,” said Redknapp.
“It’s one of the worst tackles I’ve seen in an awful long time; there’s a lot of frustration in it.”
“We’ve all made bad tackles but this… he knows exactly what he is doing, he goes right over the top of the ball and El Ahmadi is extremely lucky that he doesn’t get his leg broken.”
“It’s a three-game ban but it could be even more because it’s just nasty, it’s an awful tackle that we don’t like to see in the game.”
Aston Villa boss Paul Lambert, meanwhile, described the challenge as a “shocker”.
“I just saw the Ramires one, it was a shocker. I’ve seen it, it was a leg breaker. If anyone tells you differently I beg to differ,” the Scot told Sky Sports news.
“The first one is debatable, if it was against me I’d probably argue it. The second one is a no brainer.”
