In order to keep their perfect start to the Premier League, Nottingham Forest managed to salvage a very respectable point from their Sunday trip to Brighton.
Morgan Gibbs-White’s red card with less than ten minutes remaining caused the Reds’ play to deteriorate slightly, and the team ended up drawing 2-2.
A careless tackle on Joao Pedro led to the dismissal of the Forest forward, even though referee Rob Jones initially indicated that Gibbs-White had played the ball.
Even yet, he was persuaded to reverse his mind and give Gibbs-White a second yellow card by controversial fourth official Anthony Taylor.
Nuno Espirito Santo has a dilemma as the player who led Forest into the game will not be available for Saturday’s home match against Fulham.
At first, it appeared as though the referee could make his own decisions. He immediately gave the signal that Gibbs-White had played the ball and was game for a throw-in.
Shortly after, Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler and Espirito Santo were fired, and Gibbs-White was making his way into the tunnel.
Now, after revealing their weekend schedule, the Premier League has given the clearest indication yet that Jones blew it on Sunday.
Jones isn’t on a game at all this weekend in the top flight, he isn’t using VAR anywhere and he’s not even been summonsed to the EFL!
That is the clearest indication yet that Jones’ performance in the closing stages at the weekend wasn’t up to standard.
It looks likely that the Premier League haven’t looked kindly on Jones for changing his mind and going with Taylor’s call who was merely acting as fourth official.
While no one is advocating for the imprisonment of referees who commit egregious errors, there needs to be greater accountability for such errors.
Jones will be devastated not to be able to continue doing what he loves, but the Premier League did a good job of removing him from the proceedings this weekend.
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Howard Webb is probably going to give Forest another apology, or at least several, and this time it didn’t cost the Reds anything.
When it comes to officials, the Premier League has too much of a closed shop, and once these men advance, they never leave.
We believe that the greatest way to guarantee that the top referees are officiating games in a league that is frequently regarded as the best in the world would be to implement a league table system, or order of merit, if you will.
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