'Incorrect!' - Dean Smith fumes at Ezri Konsa red card as Aston Villa slump to fourth Premier League defeat in a row
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Updated 01/11/2021 at 06:47 GMT
Aston Villa boss Dean Smith believes referee Chris Kavanagh was wrong to send off Ezri Konsa during his side's 4-1 defeat to West Ham United on Sunday. Konsa was judged to have denied West Ham winger Jarrod Bowen a goal-scoring opportunity in the 50th minute at Villa Park. "I’ve seen it again and it’s clearly not going towards goal," Smith said.
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Aston Villa boss Dean Smith labelled the decision to send off Ezri Konsa as “incorrect” after his side suffered a fourth successive Premier League defeat, losing 4-1 to West Ham United.
Referee Chris Kavanagh initially booked Konsa for a foul on Jarrod Bowen in the 50th minute at Villa Park but upgraded it to a red card having been asked to look at a replay of the incident by the VAR.
Having walked across to the pitch-side monitor Kavanagh determined that the Villa centre-back was the last man and had denied Bowen a goal-scoring opportunity.
The incident occurred seconds after Kortney Hause appeared to take out West Ham midfielder Pablo Fornals with an arm to the face, although the VAR decided that was not worthy of a red card.
Villa trailed 2-1 at the time of Konsa’s dismissal and although the home side rallied after going down to 10 men, their visitors picked them off easily in the final 10 minutes to add goals from Fornals and Bowen.
Asked for his view on the sending off, Smith replied: “Incorrect.
“Stuart Attwell, I think he was the VAR, but Chris on the pitch, he deems it to be a foul. He doesn’t deem it to be a dogso (denial of a goal-scoring opportunity) because the ball’s going away from goal and Stuart asks him to go across to the VAR.
“I can see if they send Kortney Hause off, but they’ve cleared that one and that’s not my fault they clear that, that’s their decision.
“But then I’ve been to see Chris because he said, come and see me. I said: ‘Why did you overturn your original decision?’
“When I looked at, he said, the ball was going towards goal. I’ve seen it again and it’s clearly not going towards goal, and Ashley Young can get round on cover.”
Although he admitted that Hause could have seen red for the incident that preceded the Konsa sending off, Smith was no less angry to lose the former Brentford defender.
“They’ve got to get decision right. That’s what VAR’s for, isn’t it?” the Villa boss said.
I think the Kortney Hause one is there down to the decision of the officials, and they decided that that wasn’t.
“But DOGSO (Denying obvious goal-scoring opportunity) rules, we know what they’re about, if somebody’s clean through and they’re going in on goal. It wasn’t and that’s the annoying part.”
Defeat was Villa’s fourth in a row and heaped the pressure on Smith. However, the under-fire boss insisted he had faith in his side’s ability to turn things around.
“After an indifferent start I saw what I wanted to see from the players. I saw them playing with passion, enthusiasm, energy and some quality as well.”
“I’m always concerned when we lose any game, so I’m concerned when we’ve lost four games, but I have a great belief in the quality of squad that we’ve got to turn it around.”
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