Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas claims that officials need to crackdown on hazardous challenges in the Premier League, or risk seeing the game's most exciting players routinely injured.
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The Portuguese boss was speaking after Spurs star Gareth Bale narrowly avoided a dangerous tackle from Norwich's Alex Tettey as he raced through on goal to score in his side's 1-1 draw on Wednesday.
"It was a beautiful goal but he was extremely lucky to avoid Tettey's challenge, which could have broken his ankle," Villas-Boas said.
Bale broke through the Canaries' defence, dodging Tettey's outstretched leg, before slotting home to put Spurs on level terms in the match.
Even though the referee was proved correct in allowing the advantage, Villas-Boas remained disappointed that no further action was taken.
"I'm extremely disappointed he didn't get a yellow or red card," he added.
"You have to protect the unpredictability, passion and emotion of the British game but you have to be aware that, if people go over the top, players like Gareth could get an injury that takes him out for six months.
"I showed the referee my disappointment. I'm extremely disappointed with that incident.
"And there's such a discrepancy of refereeing styles. Credit to them because they bring passion to this league by letting the game go on but sometimes it's just over the top."
Meanwhile, Norwich counterpart Chris Hughton did not share the same empathy, claiming that Bale ran through untouched by the defenders.
"I'm surprised by that [Villas-Boas' comments]," he said. " There didn't seem much wrong with [Bale] as he went past everyone."
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