Video: Referee clearly sees nasty push from Chelsea star Olivier Giroud and strangely ignores it before immediately making another woeful decision against Fulham | OneFootball

Some eagle-eyed viewers of Saturday’s Premier League encounter between Chelsea and Fulham have noticed a disastrous decision from referee Peter Bankes.

In the 68th minute, with the Blues embarking on a potential counter-attacking opportunity as the ball was rolled out to Ben Chilwell, Oliver Giroud blatantly pushed Harrison Reed in the middle of the pitch.

The Fulham midfielder was rushing across to mark the target-man, or perhaps even apply pressure on Chilwell, but Giroud nastily pushed him to the floor with both hands.

Referee Peter Bankes clearly saw the incident as he signalled a gesture to the pair, before he immediately followed it up with another poor decision as he showed Bobby Decordova-Reid a yellow card for a seemingly fair slide tackle on Chilwell.

It’s quite perplexing to see that Giroud escaped a card for this behaviour, it was clearly intentional and excessive foulplay.

Pictures from Sky Sports.

Fortunately this decision didn’t have a direct impact on the game, but it’s still a poor one, this is a stark reminder of how low the bar has stopped when it comes to attitudes to Premier League officiating now.