West Ham United’s chances of advancing past Aston Villa in the FA Cup appear to have been given a boost following the red card suffered by Jhon Duran.
The Colombian striker was shown a straight red card after a collision with Newcastle defender Fabian Schar as Aston Villa fell 3-0 at St. James’ Park on Boxing Day.
Leeds in pole position to sign 15-goal Aston Villa star in January!
Alan Shearer has labelled the red card ‘harsh’ and Villa are expected to appeal the decision.
However, should that appeal be unsuccessful, West Ham will benefit, with their FA Cup clash away at Aston Villa the last of Duran’s three-game suspension.
Duran will also miss Premier League fixtures against Brighton and Leicester.
West Ham will be glad to see Duran missing in their FA Cup clash given he scored the winner against them on the opening weekend of the Premier League season — after being linked with a move to the London Stadium over the summer.
Villa boss Unai Emery was left raging at referee Anthony Taylor and VAR after Thursday’s loss at Newcastle.
The Spaniard is in no doubt that Duran should not have been shown a red card and made his feelings clear in his post-match press conference.
“For me, not. For me, not. It was completely not,” said Emery (via the Independent).
He continued: “I can accept maybe the other team asking for a red card, okay. But VAR please, and confirm it because the punishment now is three matches.
“His reaction after with the player over him was ‘sorry, sorry’. Then we can try to analyse if he kicked him or not. I think he didn’t kick him on purpose.
“Of course, we are going to appeal and hopefully it’s not three matches because it’s a very big punishment for this action.”
The post Major Jhon Duran boost for West Ham ahead of January appeared first on CaughtOffside.
