Dermot Gallagher reckons that it was the wrong decision to send Bruno Fernandes off.
The Manchester United captain was shown a straight red card on the stroke of half-time in Sunday afternoon's 3-0 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur - the first of his United career. Fernandes appeared to slip while trying to track James Maddison's run, catching the Spurs playmaker as he goes to ground.
On-field referee Chris Kavanagh wasted no time and brandished a red card while VAR sided with the decision that the motion from the Portuguese international was serious foul play. As a result, pending an appeal, he will miss the club's next three Premier League matches amid mounting pressure on his manager, Erik ten Hag.
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Former Premier League referee, Gallagher, speaking on Sky Sports show Ref Watch, felt that the official made the wrong decision and that his view of the incident was obscured.
"Right, a lot of debate. Look, that's referee's view, I don't think he can see it, that's my first point.
"I don't think the referee sees the challenge happen. The assistant flags it, he has a different view and angle.
"If you run it on, this is the assistant's view, you can understand why the assistant would relay that it's high and off the ground because he's caught him high."
Gallagher went on: "When you play it through, you see it's a glancing blow, he doesn't catch him as he thinks. I can understand the referee not seeing it, he has to go off the assistant's view on that, he think it's high and caught him, but he hasn't. It's an optical illusion when you see it, a more palatable decision would've been a yellow card."
On the intervention of VAR, he added: "I can't answer it because they talk about the threshold. I'm not a referee's coach and never would be, but those headsets, the assistant has passed it on, the referee hasn't seen it. But he's got time, he's blown his whistle, at that point time is the only ally. I wonder if he goes to the assistant they confer, they might come to the same conclusion, it might look better.
"I don't think many people, at the time, thought the assistant had any input. You hear people say the referee was quick to get the red card out. The referee was led and, in my view, the referee was led incorrectly because of that angle we saw. If you pull all your resources together, I think you come to a far different decision.
"I think the angle from the assistant, that will deceive him," Gallagher continued. "From that angle, he will say that his foot looked high, but he can't see his point of contact. He can't see the intensity or the momentum he's gained in that - I don't think he has because he's come from such a short distance and that's why it's not a red card.
"I can understand the referee not seeing it, but the assistant seeing it conveys that message, but it's got lost."