Brighton captain Lewis Dunk will serve a two-match ban following his red card in the 3-2 win at Nottingham Forest.
The centre-back was initially booked by referee Anthony Taylor on Saturday after questioning the official’s decision to award Forest a penalty.
Taylor made the decision after a pitchside monitor check in the second half of the Premier League game.
However, Dunk then said something else to Taylor, who immediately brandished a red card.
Sources have indicated Dunk did not call Taylor a cheat, but a straight red card in that situation would only be shown for ‘offensive, insulting or abusive language’, which carries a two-match suspension.
It means he is the first player to be sent off for abusing a referee while on the pitch during a game since Alan Smith for Newcastle United when the Magpies were beaten 6-0 by Manchester United in January 2008.
Red cards have been shown for such dissent after the final whistle in the years since Smith’s offence, with Sunderland’s Lee Cattermole dismissed at the end of the derby against Newcastle in March 2012 and Neal Maupay sent off for Brighton against Wolves in May 2021. Matheus Nunes was red-carded for the same offence when on the bench for Wolves against Leeds in March 2023.
Dunk, 32, will miss the Premier League game at Chelsea on Sunday, 3 December, and the home match against Brentford three days later.
