Sergio Aguero's elbow on West Ham's Winston Reid which landed the Manchester City striker a three-match ban was "aggressive" and "brutal", an independent commission ruled.
The Argentinian escaped a red card for his clash with Reid in City's 3-1 win at the Etihad Stadium on August 28, with referee Andre Marriner nor his assistants seeing the incident, but was suspended by the Football Association after a charge of violent conduct against him was found proven.
An FA independent regulatory commission, in its written reasons for handing out the suspension, said Aguero's actions clearly put Reid at risk of injury.
It said: "All three commission members felt that in their opinion, having been knocked off balance by Winston Reid, Mr Aguero had thrown out his left arm in an aggressive manner that was excessive in force and brutal, which clearly endangered the safety of Mr Reid.
"Indeed, even though the point of Mr Aguero's elbow did not connect with Mr Reid, his flailing forearm did and this contact between forearm and throat/neck clearly hurt Mr Reid.
"The commission members noted the clenched fist of Mr Aguero as he threw his left elbow towards Mr Reid, the upward angle of the movement and the force of the movement."
Source: PA
