A harsh sending off for Lerma

Jefferson Lerma was the recipient of two yellow cards against Aston Villa and apart from Jack Grealish, there probably weren't that many people who really expected Lerma to see red for the two challenges he made. The first was a missed timed tackle and it warranted a yellow card. What was getting our backs up though was that Anthony Taylor wasn't being consistent with his yellow cards.

Lerma gets a raw deal over second yellow card.

The second foul that caused Taylor to give Lerma a second yellow card and consequent red was a travesty. Eddie Howe said it was difficult to see where Lerma could go. Indeed, Lerma was merely standing his ground when Grealish launched himself forward at the player, knowing Lerma down. There was no intent from Lerma to block off Grealish, he was simply standing in front of Villa's attacker and was taken by surprise when Grealish decided he would try to run at Bournemouth's number eight.

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The referee clearly saw something very different, but it was annoying that VAR could not be used to correct a misjudgement. It easily could have cost Bournemouth the game and the referee seemed to have it in for Lerma with the way he didn't even listen to Simon Francis' pleas to be consistent with the fouls that other players had been making and getting away with.

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While we need referee's to be firm, it only damages their image when they seem unable to control a game without some leniency when some challenges are open to debate and interpretation. Perhaps Eddie Howe should have withdrawn Lerma at half time when he had just the one card. Lewis Cook or Andrew Surman could have been used and it means now that Lerma will miss the next game.

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I don't blame Lerma for the fact that he was sent off, because I don't think the second challenge merited a yellow card at all. But these kind of things make the team even more determined to go and get a result against the next team and the players will play for Lerma and feel that they are owed another result because of what happened in the Villa game.

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