The Brazilian lashed out at Brentford defender Nathan Collins on the hour mark – just minutes after Brighton conceded. With the scoreline at 3-1, Pedro gave his Seagulls teammates a mountain to climb by foolishly being dismissed.
Referee Tim Robinson had little just but to send the 23-year-old for an early bath. A statement from the Premier League read: “The referee’s call of red card to Joao Pedro was checked and confirmed by VAR – with the actions deemed as violent conduct.”
Brighton will now be without their top scorer for three of the final five games – a hammer blow to Fabian Hurzeler’s European hopes. Newcastle are set to travel to the Amex on May 4 – a stadium that has historically not been a happy hunting ground.
Just one win in 10 since 2012 came under Rafa Benitez’s tenure when both clubs were jostling for the Championship title. Even at St James’ Park, Brighton have enjoyed the upper hand, with two wins on Tyneside this season.
But losing Pedro through suspension does give Newcastle some solace ahead of the trip to the south coast next month. Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock labelled the Seagulls ace as “silly” following the incident.
“It was silly from Joao Pedro but this is not the first time we have seen that from him this season,” he said. “He has got previous. It looks like the arms come up into an area and you think, why are you doing that? Completely off the ball. From what we saw initially I think it is a red card.”
Brighton fans appeared to turn on Hurzeler with chants of “You don’t know what you’re doing” after Pedro’s red card. The German deflected a question about the taunts in his post-match press conference.
“I think we had a bad start after five minutes,” Hurzeler said. “We conceded a goal but afterwards we showed a good reaction, we controlled the game, we were dominant, we created chances and then I think it was a fair result.
“In the second half, we had another bad start. I think that was the key moment in the game where we conceded two goals after individual mistakes.
“Again after the red card we showed character, we showed personality, we played quite well although we were one man less and I think in this pace we deserved more, we weren’t able to score the third goal for us and then Brentford finished with a set piece.”
