‘Simply not fair’ – Slaven Bilic fumes over West Brom incident ahead of Newcastle clash
Slaven Bilic has claimed that West Brom playmaker Matheus Pereira shouldn’t have been sent off in the defeat against Crystal Palace.
The Baggies appealed the decision, and Bilic has admitted that he expected the ban to be reduced to one game – similar to that handed to Everton’s Lucas Digne.
Pereira will now instead miss three games, starting with the Premier League clash against Newcastle this afternoon at St James’ Park.
Speaking to the Express and Star, Bilic has claimed that it isn’t “fair” and that the Albion have been hard done by every decision this season.
“The red card shouldn’t have been given in the first place,” he said.
“But I expected it to go down to one game like Everton’s Digne against Southampton. I wouldn’t even be happy if it was reduced to two games. Then when I found three games, it was very disappointing.
“It is simply not fair, especially when you look at the bigger picture, what happened in that game, what has happened in the previous games.”
The difference between Digne and Pereira is the judgement that the Everton man was deemed to have made contact accidentally after slipping.
When you compare the two though, the only one that could have caused serious, or any sort of damage was Digne’s – with Patrick van Aanholt certainly milking this collision.
Pereira is vital to the Baggies and will be a massive miss.
No has made as many key passes per game than the 24-year-old according to WhoScored, something which could hand West Brom a serious lack of creativity in the North East.
With Newcastle having a seriously weakened squad for Saturday’s clash, the Brazilian missing this one and being back available for Manchester City and Aston Villa would have been manageable.
Bilic is right to fume over the decision, but he must make do.
In other West Brom news, Michael Owen predicts Baggies clash v Newcastle
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