Brighton and Hove Albion defender Pascal Struijk was shown a red card during his side’s 2-0 win at Sunderland earlier this month.

The Premier League’s Key Match Incidents panel were divided on a controversial decision made during Sunderland’s home defeat against Brighton and Hove Albion earlier this month.

The Seagulls claimed a 2-0 win at the Stadium of Light thanks to second-half goals from Maxime De Cuyper and Jaouen Hadjam - despite being reduced to ten men before the hour-mark when defender Pascal Struijk was shown a straight red card for a coming together with Black Cats forward Wilson Isidor. On-field referee Thomas Bramall failed to award a foul after the Haiti forward had been brought down - but was sent to the pitchside monitor by VAR official Neil Davies after he suggested Isidor had been denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Struijk was subsequently shown a red card and that overturned after the Seagulls submitted an appeal over the decision.

Speaking after the suspension was wiped out, Albion boss Albion boss Hurzeler said: “I heard we only had a 1% chance normally in these kinds of cases but we were 100% convinced that it's not a red card. Therefore we tried our luck and we were quite happy that the red card doesn't count anymore. We would have been more luckier or it would have been better if during the game it is solved like this, that we don't have to send the man off. But it's now a positive decision and we can keep moving forward.”

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The Premier League have now confirmed the findings of their Key Match Incidents panel and that shows a difference in opinion across all five members. A statement on the Premier League website read: “The defender makes a cynical foul clearly impacting the attacker's ability to gain possession of the ball which should have been penalised by the referee. The on-field no DOGSO red card decision was deemed incorrect, 3:2. Two panellists supported the on-field no DOGSO call as they deemed it unlikely that Isidor would get possession of the ball. The VAR outcome was supported 3:2. Despite supporting the final outcome, two panellists felt the intervention was incorrect due to the subjectivity of whether Isidor would gain possession.”

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