Diego Costa-Juan Carlos Paredes incident 'dealt with correctly'
Thursday 4 February 2016 14:56, UK
Retired referee Dermot Gallagher has backed Mike Dean for the way the official handled the Diego Costa-Juan Carlos Paredes incident in Chelsea's draw at Watford.
But, speaking on Ref Watch on Sky Sports Now, Gallagher admitted Chelsea probably deserved a penalty in the goalless draw when Watford defender Sebastian Prodl held back Kurt Zouma from reaching a cross in the box.
Chelsea interim boss Guus Hiddink has accused Watford defender Paredes of provoking Costa in an incident which saw both given a yellow card by referee Dean during Wednesday's 0-0 draw at Vicarage Road.
Costa had been spoken to earlier by Dean after shoving Prodl over during a Chelsea attack but escaped sanction. Then moments before the Spain international did get booked, he went to ground from an innocuous off-the-ball contact with Paredes.
Shortly afterwards, the Watford defender collapsed theatrically, rolled over and grabbed his face as Costa turned past him. Replays showed the visiting striker had made minimal contact.
Gallagher said Dean was absolutely correct in booking both players.
He said: "Costa's paid the price for the earlier things, on the totting up procedure; Paredes is totally out of order. You can see he's [Dean] really, really annoyed with what Paredes has done.
"He makes it quite clear it's unacceptable and I think everybody would agree with that and endorse that."
Questioned why Dean did not award Chelsea a penalty when Prodl later appeared to grapple with Zouma in the box, as he had for a similar incident when Newcastle drew with Manchester United last month, Gallagher admitted the official probably didn't see it.
He said: "He's [Dean] in a totally different position. I think the fact he's at a different angle, he hasn't seen it. It happens week in, week out, and it's something we keep addressing but we don't know a solution."
Gallagher said Chelsea probably did deserve a penalty for Prodl's misdemeanour.
The former Premier League referee analysed 13 key incidents from Wednesday and Tuesday's matches and said the match officials were correct in almost all of them.
He did, however, highlight one clash which he described as "quite nasty" - when Sunderland's Jermain Defoe caught Manchester City defender Nicolas Otamendi full in the face with his elbow during the Black Cats' 1-0 loss at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday.
Defoe was backing into Otamendi as both got under a high ball but Gallagher said: "He actually has a look. He's well aware of where the player is and he makes no attempt to avoid that player. That's the key issue."
The Sunderland striker, however, escaped without a booking.
