Southampton's Stephens sees red for pulling Cucurella's hair

Southampton defender Jack Stephens was shown a straight red card for pulling the hair of Chelsea's Marc Cucurella in the opening half of their Premier League game on Wednesday.

Bottom of the standings Southampton were 3-1 down when Stephens committed the offence as the players gathered in the area for a corner kick, and after referee Tony Harrington took a look at the VAR screen they were down to 10 men.

Cucurella is no stranger to having his long hair tugged, although the offender has not always been punished. In 2022, Cristian Romero of Tottenham Hotspur committed the same offence on the Chelsea defender but escaped a red card.

Mike Dean, the Video Assistant Referee, later admitted he had made a mistake in not asking the referee to take a look.

Young becomes oldest Everton scorer in rout of Wolves

Ashley Young became Everton’s oldest ever goalscorer and Craig Dawson twice put the ball into his own net as the Merseyside club thumped Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-0 in the Premier League at Goodison Park on Wednesday.

At the age of 39 and 148 days, right back Young also became the oldest player to convert a free kick in the Premier League with a sumptuous effort for what was his 50th goal in the English top flight.

Orel Mangala found the back of the net for the first time in Everton colours before the unfortunate Dawson scored a brace of own goals to compound the woes of Wolves, who have now conceded 36 times in 14 games this season, comfortably the most in the division.

Everton, who host Liverpool in the Merseyside Derby on Saturday, moved up to 15th place in the table with 14 points from as many matches and Wolves slipped to second bottom with nine points as the pressure grows on manager Gary O'Neil.

The home side had two goals disallowed and missed several other chances as the visitors' defence buckled under the pressure and showed why they are in the relegation zone.

O'Neil went over to the away end on the final whistle, but was greeted by boos and jeers.

Everton led when Young curled a 25-yard free kick into the bottom right corner of the goal, though Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa was right to question the effectiveness of his wall.

Jordan Pickford made a good save low to his left to deny Wolves' Jorgen Strand Larsen inside the six-yard box, before the latter missed a golden opportunity when he was alone 10 yards from goal but failed to connect with an inviting cross.

Everton doubled their advantage just past the half-hour mark as Vitaliy Mykolenko’s shot was blocked and Mangala crashed home the loose ball in the box.

The home side added a third early in the second period when McNeil’s corner was bundled into his own net by Dawson under pressure from Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

Wolves came close to pulling a goal back as Matt Doherty’s header came back off the post, but as Dawson stretched to keep out a deep free kick from McNeil, he only succeeded in steering the ball past Sa.