The FA have declared that they do not intend to take any further action against Jonjo Shelvey over the Newcastle midfielder’s largely awful lunge on Paul Pogba.
Manchester United racked up their fourth consecutive victory under caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with a 2-0 win over the Toon at St James’ Park on Wednesday evening.
Shelvey and Pogba clashed several times over the course of the evening, with the United man taking umbrage at several stiff challenges made on him by his opponent.
The most egregious coming in the 71st minute when Shelvey hit Pogba with a nasty studs-up rake to the calf in the way violently inferior players tend to deal with more talented opposition.
Shelvey somehow managed to escape without a card from referee Andre Marriner, though the FA have since confirmed that the official did see the incident.
Seeing as Marriner gave a freekick to United, the FA deem the incident to have been ‘dealt with at the time’ and therefore cannot issue any further retrospective punishment to Shelvey, such is the ludicrous way their disciplinary system operates.
It’s rough and entirely unfair (much like the tackle itself) but what’s done is done.