Former Chelsea captain Andy Townsend and Manchester United legend Owen Hargreaves have acknowledged that referee Mike Dean made the right call when he sent off Semi Ajayi in the 30th minute of West Brom's clash against Burnley at Turf Moor on Saturday evening - the 111st red card he has shown as a Premier League referee.

The Nigeria international was dismissed  for the denial of a possible goalscoring opportunity after a VAR check, leaving the Baggies to play out two-thirds of the game with ten men.

Mike Dean went across to the monitor and it was clear he had no other decision but to send off the West Brom central defender, the Super Eagle was deemed the last man and deemed to be an intentional touch.

Townsend and Hargreaves have both blamed Conor Gallagher for the red card shown to Ajayi, saying that the Chelsea loanee made a terrible pass which was misjudged by the Nigerian.

Speaking on Premier League Productions at half-time, Townsend explained : "Mike Dean didn't have any other option, made exactly the right call. The ball back to Semi Ajayi from Conor Gallagher is a really poor one.

"But I am afraid there's no way to go with that, it's just unfortunate. It looks like the hand goes towards the ball, whether it is intentional, whether it's not I'm afraid it's always going to be a red card.

"As soon as that happened we were all pretty unanimous here. Mike Dean is running over there to check it, he's made the right call I'm afraid today. No problem."

Hargreaves added : "Easy decision for Mike Dean. I feel sorry for Semi Ajayi, I think he has played really well, he's just got caught in an unfortunate position.

"Andy makes a good point, it's just a poor ball from Conor Gallagher".

Ajayi has been a key figure for West Brom this season, going the distance in all but one of their matches in the Premier League, before the trip to Burnley.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel