Tomas Soucek harshly sent off by Mike Dean after VAR review

"What is he seeing there?"

We regret to inform you that Mike Dean is at the centre of yet more VAR-related drama. Days after upsetting Southampton during their 9-0 pummelling at Old Trafford, the referee looked to be closing in on completing a relatively uneventful day's work as Fulham and West Ham played out a goalless draw at Craven Cottage. Deep into stoppage time, however, Dean was asked to take a look at a coming together between West Ham's Tomas Soucek and Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrovic. Replays showed Soucek catch Mitrovic with his arm as the pair waited for a free-kick to be taken on the edge of the Fulham area. To pretty much everyone watching, it appeared to be unintentional, but the VAR officials deemed the incident worthy of a closer look from the referee. After checking a pitch-side monitor, Dean, for the second time in a week brandished what seemed like a particularly harsh red card. https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1358136480808501252 As well as drawing plenty of criticism from those watching the game at home, Jamie Redknapp, covering the game as a pundit for Sky Sports, tore into the decision. "You can blame VAR or Mike Dean - whatever you want - but what is he seeing there?" he said. "He went over there and he still decided to give this as a red card. "He's trying to get his arm out of the way. Mitrovic tries to grab him, he lifts his arm almost to get it out of the way and - completely by accident - his elbow catches him." https://twitter.com/SkySportsPL/status/1358139788042371073