Manchester United might seek another explanation over Anthony Taylor's refereeing

If Matt Le Tissier was not of a Southampton persuasion, he might be peddling another conspiracy theory.

Andre Marriner, the referee who presented Casemiro with a red card against Crystal Palace last month, was the Video Assistant Referee who advised Casemiro's tackle on Carlos Alcaraz warranted the same colour.

More relevantly, Marriner was the on-pitch official on Saturday when Ricardo Pereira embedded his studs on the shin of Joao Felix. That was an objectively worse foul and Pereira was not even booked.

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That may have been on Marriner's mind when he analysed Casemiro's challenge on Alcaraz. You can imagine the scene in that cabin at Stockley Park: "I cocked up again yesterday, so better get this one right."

And this is the nub of it with the Premier League officials: they are on different pages. So VAR, which purports to be an objective system, is applied subjectively and is inconsistent.

"What I think is the inconsistency, players don't know anymore what is the policy," Erik ten Hag said, "and I think it's all across.

"We see it with Premier League yesterday: Leicester-Chelsea, the VAR is not coming on the line. Today, it's coming on the line."

Had Anthony Taylor expelled Casemiro immediately, it would have been more understandable than the retrospective decision to wipe out the yellow card and flourish red. Was a yellow for Casemiro a "clear and obvious" error by Taylor? Probably not.

What did not help Taylor was the replay he was shown was in slo-mo. It remains mystifying that fouls or incidents deemed a possible red card are presented to the on-pitch official out of context. Taylor was shown one angle of Casemiro's challenge - the unflattering angle.

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