It didn’t look anything more serious than just an unfortunate series of events on “live time”, but on replay, it sure looks like Everton’s Kevin Mirallas intentionally stamped on Cesc Fàbregas during the closing stages of Wednesday night’s League Cup game at Stamford Bridge, which Chelsea ended up winning 2-1.
While Fàbregas initiated the contact with a strong challenge to clear the ball as it was bouncing around in a group of players, causing Mirallas to jump up in the air to avoid contact, as the Everton man came down, he appeared to not only double-clutch his leg, but also angle it behind himself to reach the Chelsea midfielder’s back. Neither of those look like natural actions of a player who jumps up while moving forward and wants to ensure a steady landing for himself.
Judge for yourself:
don't see how anyone can say that Mirallas' stamp on Fàbregas was unintentional. he goes out of his way to kick out at him. pic.twitter.com/500DU2vYky
— amadí (@amadoit__) October 26, 2017
It’s perhaps just borderline enough to avoid further scrutiny from the FA. Maybe if his name was Diego Costa, it would be a different case — the media would be up in arms about yet another #CostaCrimes episode, and the FA, as they’re wont to do, would cave in to the public pressure and at least appear to do their job.
Don’t expect the same thing to happen here. But we know what you did, Kevin.