Not for the first time this season the sight of a red card left Michael Keane looking utterly bemused. Where not too long ago he had been on the receiving end of a slap in the face from Idrissa Gueye that led to his Everton team-mate being sent off, so on Wednesday night Keane was the one given his marching orders in more bizarre circumstances.
A low-key contest with Wolverhampton Wanderers was drifting towards an unsatisfactory stalemate when, in the 81st minute, the centre back was adjudged to have been guilty of pulling the ponytail of Tolu Arokodare in an aerial duel.
No one in the Hill Dickinson Stadium picked up on anything in real time, but referee Thomas Kirk was advised by VAR to review the flashpoint.
Footage showed Keane tug the hair of his rival as he sought to gain leverage, and the match official duly followed the letter of the law, deeming it to be violent conduct.
The centre back was incredulous as he traipsed off and, from there, the fallout merely intensified during a chaotic ending.
Keane, left, watches his adroit finish sail into the Wolves goal for his third Premier League goal this season
REUTERS
The home crowd were incensed when a replay of the incident was shown on the big screen; the Everton manager, David Moyes, was booked for his protests and Jack Grealish then joined Keane in being dismissed when he was booked twice in quick succession for dissent.
It was Grealish’s first red card in his Premier League career and the second caution came for sarcastically applauding the match official. That was an unnecessary act of petulance, but Moyes’s focus was, understandably, elsewhere.
“It is not violent, it is not forceful and it is not deliberate,” he said. “So all of those things mean it shouldn’t have been a red card.
Thomas Kirk shows Keane a red card for pulling Arokodare’s hair
ALEX LIVESEY/GETTY
“It was a really poor decision to send him to the [pitchside] screen in the first place. Unless you have played the game you might not understand. I have been a centre half and there is no way I am jumping to outjump a big centre forward and think, ‘By the way, I am going to outjump him and at the same time I am going to pull his hair.’
“I don’t know anyone on the planet who is good enough to think that way when they are jumping up. I thought it was a ridiculous decision by the referee, but more so by VAR. The ridiculous bit came from VAR.
“Why would that be a red card and we were letting other things go?”
Moyes was not aware of it, but Hwang Hee-chan received only a booking for raking his studs down the back of the leg of Harrison Armstrong, 18, who was making his full Premier League debut for Everton.
Everton will surely lodge an appeal to the FA, although there will be little confidence in that course of action being successful. That Rob Edwards, the Wolves head coach, labelled it a “soft” dismissal will merely have served to inflame a sense of injustice.
The late drama came after Keane had actually opened the scoring when turning in Tim Iroegbunam’s initial effort from close range in the 17th minute.
At that point, Everton were eighth in the league table and three points from fourth place. By the end, they had slipped to 12th, having failed to take advantage of that platform and allowed Wolves to equalise.
Edwards said afterwards his staff had recognised in the warm-up that his team were not quite on it and it required the introduction of Jorgen Strand Larsen, and a switch to a back four, to reap an instant reward.
Larsen threaded a ball for the teenager Mateus Mané to burst beyond Jake O’Brien and James Tarkowski and embellish his growing reputation with a fine equalising strike.
Had Jordan Pickford, the Everton goalkeeper, not produced a wonderful save to prevent Hugo Bueno’s curling effort from finding the top corner deep in stoppage time, Wolves’ recent improvement would have brought another victory.
They are unbeaten in three matches, but remain 14 points from safety. A miracle is surely beyond them. “It is a very, very difficult challenge but we are not going to roll over,” Edwards added. “We will keep fighting until the end of the 38th game.”
Everton (4-3-3): J Pickford — J O’Brien , J Tarkowski, M Keane, V Mykolenko — H Armstrong ((N Patterson 87min), J Garner, T Iroegbunam — D McNeil (M Rohl 91), T Barry (Beto 87), J Grealish.
Booked Iroegbunam, Grealish Sent off Keane, Grealish.
Wolverhampton Wanderers (3-5-2): J Sá, Y Mosquero, S Bueno, L Krejci (J Strand Larsen 68) — J Tchatchoua, J Arias (André 45), J Gomes, M Mané, H Bueno — T Arokodare, H Hwang (P Lima 90+5). Booked Sá. Mosquero Referee T Kirk.