Gabby Agbonlahor believes Vladimir Coufal was lucky to avoid punishment for his aggressive approach to defending against Jack Grealish during West Ham’s Premier League clash with Aston Villa, as he told talkSPORT (2 December, 8.30).
Love him or loathe him, you can never ignore him.
Grealish was as influential as ever at the London Stadium on Monday night, scoring a brilliant long-range goal while running rings around the home defence during the latest in a long line of Man of the Match displays.
For all the good Grealish did, however, controversy once again threatened to overshadow a magnificent performance.
The homegrown captain was labelled a ‘diver’ and a ‘cheat’ by an irate member of the West Ham backroom staff after going down under admittedly minimal contact during Villa’s 2-1 defeat, according to manager Dean Smith (Sky).
Agbonlahor, however, feels the focus should switch from Grealish’s tendency to exaggerate contact to what he deemed an overly-aggressive approach from tough-tackling right-back Coufal.
“I think it’s fair. If you look at the West Ham game, he was kicked every time he got the ball. If you look at the West Ham full-back, he kicked him every time and he got away with it without getting booked,” said the former Aston Villa captain.
“So you’ve got to look at it from Jack’s point of view. Maybe he’s just tired of being kicked so much.”
Coufal, a committed, old-school defender, certainly strayed over the line of acceptability once or twice, but Grealish didn’t do himself any favours on a number of occasions either.
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