Semi Ajayi was sent off as West Bromwich Albion held hosts Burnely to a 0-0 draw in their Premier League clash at the Turf Moor on Saturday, reports Completesports.com.
Ajayi bagged a straight red card on the half hour mark when he handled the ball when he was the only player between Burnely and goal.
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Video Assistant Referee (VAR) confirmed the professional foul committed by the centre-back.
Ajayi has scored twice in 25 league appearances for the Baggies this season,
Sam Allardyce’s men remain in 19th position on the table following the stalemate and now face a difficult task in their fight to escape the drop.
2 Comments
Took one for the team probably. All in all a good draw considering. Still looks like they are going down. Back to the championship with them. The team never looked like they were prepared for premiership football.
Fulham have an outside chance of staying up, if they win tonight they will put alot of pressure on Newcastle. Lets see how it goes.
After a couple of games with Allardyce in charge, I came here to predict some months back that Wes Brom are likely to be relegated. The approach of Okocha’s former Bolton coach seems outdated and not suited to the challenges of modern football. I personally wish they had stuck with Slavan Bilic through thick and thin. At least Wes Brom played expansive football and were on the front foot at times under the Croat.
Still, I pray they somehow find a way to stay in the Premier League – impossibility is nothing.
As for Ajayi, well I have highlighted his perceived shortcomings on occasions but yes (I agree with you Sportsfan) he took one for the team in being issued his sack letter from today’s encounter. Having said that, what other choices did he have?
He could have anticipated the ball better, kept his hand well close to his turso and then sprint backwards to instigate a more careful yet effective defensive manoeuvre.
But his hands were wide enough to make contact with the ball to cause an infraction and generate a VAR determined sack letter.
Still, Semi Ajayi’s hard work and tireless efforts before that unfortunate incident should be seen in good light. Joseph Chapman, writing for Birmingham Mail describes the incident as ‘Unfortunate’ when rating Ajayi for today’s match.
On the Web version of the newspaper, Chapman wrote:
”
_Player Ratings_
Semi Ajayi (5/10):
Was going okay in the back, bar one battle for the ball lost against Rodriguez, but he seemed comfortable alongside Bartley in the opening exchanges. The incident after half an hour which involved his red card via handball was very unfortunate indeed.”