Chelsea have been told that they could have two of their top attacking stars sent off during the 2-0 victory over Everton.

Morgan Rogers’ full-blooded challenge on James Garner in the first half went unpunished by referee Paul Tierney - a potentially lucky escape considering that he was already on a yellow card, according to former officials such as Mike Dean and Mark Clattenburg.

Cole Palmer was at the centre of two flashpoints during the game, first risking a yellow card for kicking the ball away prior to a caution for dissent in the second period.

But the biggest calls for Palmer to receive another card stemmed from an incident in stoppage time, when he caught Jarrad Branthwaite while pressing the Everton defence.

Sky Sports’ ‘Ref Watch’ panel on Monday first looked at the Rogers incident, with ex-Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher explaining how VAR could not intervene after Tierney waved play on.

Gallagher said: "He's lucky the referee didn't give a free-kick. If you look at the outcome, the referee plays on. Because he does that, the dilemma then for VAR is whether it's a second yellow, but he can't go for that.

"Is it enough for a red? That's the balance. If the referee hasn't given a foul, it takes the VAR out of the equation.

Tempers flaring: Morgan Rogers had already been booked for a clash with James Tarkowski

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"I think it's on the threshold [for a straight red card] and once it's there, that's the dilemma of this second yellow card.”

Former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood believes there was no question that Rogers should have been sent off, feeling that he could have seriously injured England team-mate Garner.

Sherwood said: “I’ve gone into so many challenges like that, where you know you’re going to get hurt. It’s whoever gets hurt the most.

“Dermot would have played on back in the day, thankfully! He could have broken his leg there. That’s a poor challenge. That’s a straight red card for me.”

Fellow pundit Jay Bothroyd was in agreement, adding: “The first angle we saw, where Morgan Rogers goes up close to his knee. That one you can say ‘definitely a red card’.

“When I was watching it at normal speed, I was thinking that was a 50/50 challenge, they’re both going in for it. When you look at it from that angle, I would probably say that it is a red card and Rogers got lucky.”

Attention then quickly turned to the incidents involving Palmer. The Chelsea star easily could have been booked for time-wasting when he punted the ball high into the sky after Everton were awarded a free-kick.

Gallagher offered some mitigation for Palmer, saying: “The argument is he's kicking the ball back to where it should be because the game stopped for a free-kick on the edge of the area, so he's kicking it back to Jordan Pickford.

Double trouble: Some have claimed that Cole Palmer and Morgan Rogers could both have been sent off

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"But if he gets a yellow card, he's not going to have much argument whatsoever. If you do that, you run such a risk and how you get away with that, I don't know."

Bothroyd was adamant that Palmer should have seen yellow. He said: "I've seen people throw the ball up in the air and get yellow cards. He's launched the ball up in the air about 40 yards but because it's gone back to where it was, it's not a yellow card?

"That's definitely a yellow. There's no doubt about that."

The time-wasting incident came before Palmer was booked for dissent. While walking the tightrope of a yellow card, he was later involved in another foul that could have produced a second yellow.

That was the opinion of Sherwood, who said: "When the full-back is clearing the ball up the line, when a striker comes across, nine times out of 10 it is a yellow card and it should have been then."

But ex-referee Gallagher believed that any further caution would have been too harsh. He explained: "He is chasing the ball, he goes in - does he whack him? I am not so sure, he catches him and if we give a yellow card for every bit of physical contact, we are going to sanitise the game."