Following his red card in Saturday’s 3-2 victory over Nottingham Forest, Brighton & Hove Albion captain Lewis Dunk was given a two-match suspension. As a result, he will miss Premier League matches against Chelsea and Brentford.
Midway through the second half, with the score at 3-1 at the City Ground, the 32-year-old contested a VAR decision to award Forest a penalty. As a result, on-field referee Anthony Taylor initially issued him a yellow card for dissent.
Dunk was shown a straight red card for foul and abusive language after Taylor, the pitchside monitor, reviewed the meeting between Jack Hinshelwood and Callum Hudson-Odoi and awarded the spot kick.
The subsequent penalty kick was converted by Morgan Gibbs-White, but Brighton managed to hang on and win all three points despite having 10 men, capping their six-game league winless streak.
Dunk will now be required to miss two Premier League games due to a straight red card for such an offence: one at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea on December 3 and the other at home against Brentford three days later.
The Premier League has not seen a player dismissed for foul and abusive language like Dunk did until January 2008, when Alan Smith, a former player for Newcastle United, was sent off in a 6-0 loss to Manchester United.
Rarely over the years, players have been dismissed for disobedience after the full-time whistle, including
Both former Wolves midfielder Matheus Nunes and Lee Cattermole were sent off for the same offence following their matches against rivals Newcastle in March 2012 and Leeds United in March of this year, respectively.
In his 13-year senior career, Dunk has received five red cards; this was his first since February 2022 when he was away against Manchester United.
Prior to the victory at Forest, the England international had participated in all ninety minutes of play in eleven of Brighton’s first twelve Premier League games; however, he was injured and missed the team’s 1-1 draw with Sheffield United just before the international break.
Dunk is not Brighton’s only absentee; Roberto De Zerbi must also deal with several injury concerns, such as Ansu Fati and Tariq Lamptey, who
While Mahmoud Dahoud served the first of a three-game domestic ban against Forest, Kaoru Mitoma, James Milner, Adam Webster, Igor Julio, Pervis Estupinan, Solly March, Danny Welbeck, and Julio Enciso are all currently out due to injury.
Joel Veltman and Jan Paul van Hecke could play centre back against Chelsea due to the absence of the suspended Dunk and the potential absences of Webster and Igor, with Pascal Gross possibly filling in at right or left back.
Dunk and Dahoud are both eligible to play for Brighton against AEK Athens in Greece on Thursday in the Europa League group stage.
