Keith Hackett: Aaron Cresswell red wrong ahead of West Ham United suspension v Lyon
We’re delighted to welcome former Premier League referee Keith Hackett as our exclusive West Ham United columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium...
Keith Hackett has insisted that the red card handed to Aaron Cresswell against Lyon was wrong at every level.
The ex-FIFA official believes it wasn’t even a foul, and no criteria were met for it to be deemed a sending-off offence.
Cresswell is now deemed to miss the second leg in France on Thursday, as the Irons look to reach the semi-finals of the Europa League.
“I think this will be amusing because, for a number of years, the fans used to sing are you, Hackett, in disguise,” he exclusively told West Ham Zone.
“I actually think there wasn’t a foul, therefore, the player cannot be dismissed. The second bit, was the player in direction of the goal? Becuase he is actually moving towards the corner flag more than the goal, again, the criteria are not fulfilled.
“Even if he thinks it’s a foul, he’s still got it wrong because the direction is away from the goal. I think West Ham had lots of reasons to complain on that one.”
Awful.
This was somewhat forgotten about, but now Brentford are out of the way, all eyes are now on Lyon and the Europa League.
Now, David Moyes will have to prepare for his biggest game in charge of the club without one of his main leaders.
Moussa Dembele even winked at his teammates after the altercation, something that he likely didn’t believe would get picked up by cameras.
There is no time to complain though, it is time to go and get the job done in France and hopefully get him back for the semi-finals.
Let’s hope for better officials this time around.
In other West Ham United news, Yaya Toure has said he would be open to helping this Irons star improve to the next level
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