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Aston Villa was lucky to finish its defeat by Liverpool with 11 men after Amadou Onana shoved Alexis Mac Allister to the ground by the throat.
That's the view of former PGMOL chief Keith Hackett, who said that Onana's shove was "an act of violence" that was worth of a straight red card.
Liverpool was defending a corner in the second half when Mac Allister was tasked with marking Onana, and the pair were all over each other as they waited for the ball to come in.
Tensions boiled over when Onana put his hand around Mac Allister's neck and shoved him to the ground, but the former Everton star escaped with a booking from referee Stuart Attwell.
Hackett told Football Insider that Onana should've been dismissed, saying: “I’m quite clear that when a player puts his hands on the throat or face of an opponent, that is an act of violence.
“I know some at the PGMOL think there has to be excessive force. They probably want to see the guy nearly put in the hospital, but that shouldn’t be the case. We’re playing football. When I was the boss, I was clear that this should be an instant red card.
“It’s clearly now been watered down because they’re not applying it. They don’t understand how much of a deterrent it can be in these situations.
“Given VAR intervention, I’m a little bit surprised that the referee wasn’t sent over to the monitor to make a decision. That is the very minimum that I would expect. I think they’ve got it wrong.”
The incident was debated on Sky Sports on Monday, and former Premier League striker Jay Bothroyd agreed that Onana should've been sent off.
He said: "As much as I like a physical game, I'm all for that. I look at this situation, and if someone puts their hand on my throat in the street, you're going to get an aggressive reaction from me.
"In that instance, I'm saying that should be a red card Mac Allister's made the most of it, he's gone down, and that's probably because if he reacts, he'll get a red card too.
"I think he's gone down there and it's something that the officials should have picked up. I say that's aggressive. If that happened off the football pitch, and someone did that to you, you're going to react in a certain way that's probably going to be aggressive."
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