Why Chelsea’s Moises Caicdeo was sent off but Tottenham’s Rodrigo Bentanur escaped

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca was frustrated. Not because of the dismissal of Moises Caicedo against Arsenal on Sunday, but about what he perceived to be a lack of consistency.

You can see his point. Last month Tottenham midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur was booked for a foul on Reece James, which the video assistant referee (VAR) agreed with. Yet when Caicedo was cautioned for a similar challenge on Mikel Merino there was an intervention for a red card.

“It’s a red card, but why was Bentancur’s against Reece (James) not a red card when we were at Spurs away?” Maresca asked.

“So us, as a manager, we struggle to understand why they judge in a different way.

“Moises’ is a red card, yes. Bentancur’s is a red card, yes. Why don’t they give him a red card? It’s just that we struggle to understand. The reality is that it’s a red card. But why do they judge it differently?”

So, what was the difference?

Well, outcomes are partly dependent upon who the VAR is – which makes consistency very difficult.

No two fouls are ever the same and there are subtle differences between the two. Bentancur was only really stepping in, while Caicedo jumped a little and his contact point was slightly higher.

There was also a pronounced buckle of Merino’s ankle, which is something a VAR is looking for to indicate excessive force, and his boot was shifted back on the turf.

In Bentancur’s case, the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel supported the yellow card for Bentancur by four votes to one, and unanimously backed no VAR intervention “on the basis that the challenge was low, just slightly late and reckless”.

The KMI panel will back the decision to send off Caicedo but it won’t be too long before another tackle of its type is deemed just a yellow card.

Since the start of the 2023-24 season the KMI Panel has logged 12 errors on serious foul play reviews.