
Former Premier League referee Mike Dean labelled Andreas Pereira's tackle on Ryan Gravenberch as "100% a red card" in the first half of Liverpool's visit from Fulham
But it's understood the incident was thoroughly checked by the officials at Stockley Park's VAR centre, who agreed with the on-field call by match referee Tony Harrington at Anfield.
Gravenberch went down under a challenge by former Manchester United man Pereira in the first half
Pereira accused of raking his studs down the Achilles of the Reds star inside the first 10 minutes.
Referee Harrington opted only to caution Pereira and the Premier League chose not to publicly explain the thinking behind the decision
they did for Issa Diop's first-minute challenge on Andy Robertson, which was high but not deemed to be worthy of a red card.
it is understood that the VAR agreed with Harrington's initial ruling of the foul, meaning Pereira was able to continue on and open the scoring at Anfield.
Former top-level referee Dean was critical of the officials who were casting judgement over the foul, saying on Sky Sports:
"I think judging by what we saw in the week in the programme that Howard (Webb) did (Mic'd up).”
"It's the same challenge as Wilfried Ndidi on the back of Cole Palmer. He's caught him just above the achilles with his studs and and scraped down to the top of the boot.
"In my opinion he's nowhere near the ball, he knows what he's doing and it's 100% a red card."
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