Crystal Palace endured a disastrous return to Premier League action after going down to nine men in a 3-0 defeat at Selhurst Park against Fulham.
Bobby Decordova-Reid headed the Cottagers in front shortly after the half hour mark and just before Tyrick Mitchell was issued a straight red card. Things went from bad to worse for the Eagles when James Tomkins was shown a second yellow card for blocking Alexander Mitrovic’s run with a raised arm early in the second-half.
Centre-back Tim Ream doubled the Cottagers' lead with a strikers finish after 71 minutes and Mitrovic would wrap up the three points by heading in the third from close range with ten minutes of normal time remaining.
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Fulham started the brighter and deserved their opener from Decordova-Reid, but the course of the game and it’s outcome was undoubtedly impacted by Palace going down to nine men. Former Eagles and Fulham manager Roy Hodgson and ex-Cottagers midfielder Steve Sidwell could not argue against referee Andrew Madley’s decision to issue Mitchell with the first red card of his career.
“I think it was a red card. Whether it was just a bit of rustiness, maybe first game back, it was a touch that just got away from him. An innocent, I’d say lunge, to try and get the ball, I don’t think there is any malice in it at all, it’s just a mistimed tackle and I think it was the right call for me.” Sidwell said during Amazon Prime’s post-match coverage.
Hodgson added: “I’d love to defend Tyrick there and say it was wrong but I can’t, I totally agree with Steve. I must say that that is not Tyrick Mitchell, that’s not the way he plays or what he does.”
There was much more debate for the second red card awarded to Tomkins, who had already been booked for a foul on Mitrovic in the first-half. Just over ten minutes into the second period, the Fulham striker attempted to close down Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita but was stopped in his tracks by Tomkins who was judged to have raised his arm.
However, both Hodgson and Sidwell believe that the decision to send Tomkins off was a harsh one. Sidwell said: “With Tomkins the arm is up, how many times do we see defenders block the run of the striker or attacking player to charge down the keeper.
“Tomkins knows he’s trying to block, the arm is up, it does probably catch Mitrovic but Mitrovic knows what he is doing there, he’s playing the game, makes the most out of it and gives the referee the decision to make the call.”
Hodgson added: “It was the wrong decision in my opinion. I think he’s entitled to move across there. You can’t always control exactly where your arm is but I don’t believe for one minute he lifted his arm to do any particular damage there and it could so easily have been the other way around. I’m pretty certain that Alexander would have had his arm raised as well. So I think that was a very harsh decision.”
Sidwell added: “If you actually look at it from that camera angle there it is as though when the ball is going [Tomkins] is sort of saying I’m leaving it to go back to the keeper. It doesn’t actually look like he is going to block with his arm or elbow, so I think they’ve been hard done by there.”
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