Referee Rob Jones has been responsible for five key match incidents this season, according to a Premier League panel. The official faced criticism after failing to send off Sunderland's Brian Brobbey during a match against Tottenham Hotspur on April 12.
In the 63rd minute, Brobbey pushed Tottenham captain Cristian Romero, who shielded the ball towards goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky. The incident left Romero with a knee injury that will sideline him for the remainder of the season. Jones, who had already booked Brobbey, awarded a foul but did not issue a second yellow card. VAR cannot intervene on potential second yellows.
The Premier League's Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel voted 3-2 that Jones made an error, describing Brobbey's action as 'a two-handed push which was an unnecessarily reckless action'. This mistake adds to Jones's tally of five KMI errors this season, the most for any referee on second yellow card incidents.
Jones has also been involved in errors regarding Malick Thiaw (Newcastle vs Bournemouth), Ruben Dias (Manchester City vs Nottingham Forest), Rodri (Manchester City vs Tottenham), and Cole Palmer (Chelsea vs Leeds United). Over the past two seasons, he has the joint-most mistakes on second bookings, accounting for 10 of 42 errors.
Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi, when informed of the panel's ruling, said: 'Can we play that game again or not? I think not. It was clear but no problem. We have to move on.' Spurs, currently in the relegation zone, face already-relegated Wolves on Saturday.
