Darren Bent hammers Leeds star Luke Ayling after incident against Leicester City

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Darren Bent has hammered Leeds United star Luke Ayling on TalkSPORT (Tuesday, 8.05am) after the Whites defender has been heavily accused of diving during the 4-1 defeat to Leicester City on Monday night.

Ayling, 29, tried to win a penalty as Leeds took on Leicester. Driving at experienced defender Christian Fuchs, Ayling played the ball past the Austrian but immediately threw himself to the floor. Replays showed the Leeds defender dived.

Unlike Mo Salah’s incident against West Ham on Saturday, there was absolutely no contact on the former Arsenal academy player – though Ayling was not booked for his dive. Leeds suffered a heavy defeat, as Youri Tielemans notched a brace.

Jamie Vardy and Harvey Barnes also found the back of the net, cancelling out Stuart Dallas effort. Bent labelled Ayling “embarrassing” and his attempts to win a spot kick for Leeds was “blatant cheating”.

“It was blatant cheating, embarrassing,” Bent said. “If he stays on his feet, he can get past the defender and get a cross in but it is like he is expecting the tackle. But it is terrible.

“Ayling deserves retrospective action and certainly deserved a yellow card. It is not like he got a bit of contact and went down. The look on his face after shows he knew he was wrong. It is cheating, horrific.”

TBR’s view – Should Ayling be retrospecively punished?

For a dive like Ayling’s, being able to hand a player a post-match ban of one, two or even three games should be made a rule. But the grey areas emerge when contact has been made, but not enough to force a player to the floor – like Salah.

Does Salah deserve retrospective punishment? Masuaku’s challenge is a foul, though soft. It is hard to say whether the Egyptian deserves punishment for his theatrics – whereas Ayling, given it is so clear-cut, probably does deserve to get a ban.