Mike Dean delivered a remarkable outburst aimed at referees following a contentious Bruno Fernandes incident. The Manchester United captain seemed to be struck by an elbow from Nilson Angulo during his team's stalemate against Sunderland, with Dean bizarrely offering an explanation for why it may have escaped punishment.
Paul Merson, who was covering the match for Sky Sports, explained: "Fernandes gets the ball, he's got his head up and goes to play it. Angulo, who's come on, is running back and as he's running back he just gives him a little elbow in the face. It's not major contact, but he's meant to do it. I think this could be a red card."
Related articles
As the refereeing specialist on the panel, Dean interjected: "There's not a lot of force in it, but I don't understand why the player would run back and put his arm in and just put himself at risk."
"I'm not sure what's happening - they've obviously had a look at it; they're not doing anything, they've just had a chat with Fernandes and check complete. You run the risk with VAR, that could have gone either way."
Merson then stated: "They didn't even book him, Mike."
Dean oddly replied: "Well, it's May isn't it?"
EXPRESS SPORT ON FB! Get all the best sports news and much more on our Facebook page
Lead presenter Simon Thomas asked: "What? It might be May for you but the referee's still got a job to do, hasn't he?"
Dean then elaborated: "I'm just annoyed about decisions in games where they're just not making decisions. Fulham's a prime example today. Just a poor performance on the pitch.
"They're just not making decisions on the pitch. Joking apart, May or not - that's an easy decision to make. We've had a penalty shout five minutes before with Man United, that could have gone either way, a challenge in another game, they're just not making decisions and I don't know why that is."
WORLD CUP LEGENDS: The stars who lit up football’s greatest tournament - Buy the Special Edition today
In response to that, Thomas questioned: "Is that something they're going to have to address this summer?"
Dean answered: "They're going to have to, because it's just not good enough. We were talking earlier off-air about it, it's easier to go red, make a big and brave decision and go red card, and everybody's happy if they [the decisions] stay on-field because it's a good decision. I think they're just scared of going red, they're just petrified."
Simultaneously with United's goalless draw, both Fulham and Bournemouth had players dismissed for straight red card offences following VAR reviews. The Cherries went on to claim victory in that fixture, placing themselves in a commanding position to secure Champions League football.