VIDEO: Southampton's Jack Stephens shown straight red card for needlessly pulling Marc Cucurella's HAIR in shocking incident against Chelsea

Referee Tony Harrington was alerted to the incident late in the first half and, after reviewing the replay, opted to send Stephens off with a straight red card. The loss of the centre-back gave the Saints a mountain to climb, as the Premier League's bottom team were already 3-1 down.

The incident was reminiscent of the time Tottenham defender Cristian Romero was spotted pulling Cucurella's hair, but escaped punishment because Mike Dean decided not to tell referee Anthony Taylor to check the replay.

"I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee and I think I didn’t want to send him up because I didn’t want any more grief than he already had," he said at the time.

Southampton remain bottom of the Premier League with just five points from 13 matches. They are up against Aston Villa in their next game, while Chelsea face Tottenham on Sunday.