Southampton vs Chelsea: Jack Stephens despatched off for pulling Marc Cucurella’s hair

Southampton defender Jack Stephens was proven a straight crimson card for pulling the hair of Chelsea‘s Marc Cucurella within the opening half of their Premier League sport on Wednesday.

Backside-of-the-league Southampton have been 3-1 down when Stephens dedicated the offence because the gamers gathered within the space for a nook kick, and after referee Tony Harrington took a take a look at the VAR display they have been all the way down to 10 males.

Southampton managed to keep up the scoreline for a lot of the the rest of the sport earlier than Chelsea added objectives from Cole Palmer and Jadon Sancho to safe a 5-1 victory.

Cucurella is not any stranger to having his lengthy hair tugged, though the offender has not at all times been punished. In 2022, Cristian Romero of Tottenham Hotspur dedicated the identical offence on the Chelsea defender however escaped a crimson card.

The Video Assistant Referee that day, Mike Dean, later admitted he had made a mistake in not asking the referee to have a look.