Phil Neville Claims Mitrovic Is in 'Big Trouble' After Using Elbow in Newcastle's Win Over West Ham

Newcastle United's Aleksandar Mitrovic could face retrospective action after appearing to elbow Manuel Lanzini. Mitrovic had a good day on Saturday, coming off the bench and scoring in the Magpie's 3-0 win over West Ham United at St James's Park.

However, Match of the Day highlighted an incident late in the game involving Lanzini. Mitrovic appeared to aim his elbow at the midfielder late in the game.

As referee Neil Swarbrick missed the incident and took no action, Mitrovic could be punished retrospectively with a three-game ban. MotD pundit Phil Neville said: "He's in big trouble. 

"It's a red card. It's nasty, violent, and I can't understand it. At 2-0 up, (Newcastle were) cruising in the game.

"That's a deliberate act, similar to (Marko) Arnautovic last week at Southampton. No need to do it. It's dangerous play, and not needed on the football pitch." 

Many Newcastle fans were disappointed with Mitrovic's actions:

However, West Ham manager Slaven Bilic did not talk at great lengths about the incident.  “I didn’t see it," said Bilic. "Nobody saw it because it was off the ball. There’s no point talking about that."

Toon army fans may be wondering if their team has a discipline problem at the moment? During Newcastle's opening match of the season Jonjo Shelvey received a red card for a stamp on Dele Alli. 

Rafa Benitez will need to get this potential problem under control if Newcastle are to avoid relegation. The games that Mitrovic could miss if retrospective action is taken would be Swansea (A), Stoke (H) and Brighton (A).