Referees pay the penalty for disputed decision at Old Trafford
text size

Referees pay the penalty for disputed decision at Old Trafford

Although there were no major upsets in the opening weekend of the Premier League, the action wasn't devoid of talking points.

It will come as no surprise that most of the disputes concerned refereeing and VAR decisions and the interpretation of new rules.

The most contentious incident came at Old Trafford where Manchester United were fortunate not to concede a late penalty when goalkeeper Andre Onana clattered into Wolves striker Sasa Kalajdzic without making any contact with the ball.

The ref didn't see anything wrong with it and neither did VAR.

However, the three officials involved, referee Simon Hooper and VAR duo Michael Salisbury and Richard West have significantly not been selected for this weekend's fixtures.

Referees chief Howard Webb, head of the Professional Games Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), reportedly contacted Wolves after the game and apologised for what he felt was an incorrect decision.

PGMOL's John Moss also apologised to Wolves boss Gary O'Neil for the incident. "He said it was a blatant penalty," O'Neil said. "Fair play to him, he apologised."

O'Neil admitted to the BBC that the apology "probably made me feel worse because you know you are right."

On a more positive note, it was encouraging to see three players receive yellow cards for that annoying habit of demanding the referee yellow card an opponent.

In the Chelsea v Liverpool clash, both Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson and Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister were fouled but ultimately received a yellow themselves for their hand gestures asking referee Anthony Taylor to book their opponent. Jackson incidentally was fortunate not to concede a penalty with one of those 50-50 hand-ball decisions which some referees would have given.

The other player to fall foul of the new yellow card rule was Bruno Guimaraes of Newcastle who was booked after waving an imaginary yellow card while trying to get Aston Villa's Pau Torres booked for a foul on Sandro Tonali.

It was worth it just to see the players' incredulous faces as they received the booking. Yet at the start of the season, they had been clearly warned that this is what would happen if they waved imaginary cards.

Probably the silliest handball decision was the penalty given against Brighton's Lewis Dunk trying to cut out a cross which appeared to hit him on his back and elbow.

Although Luton scored from the subsequent spot kick it was not too controversial as the Seagulls cruised to a comfortable 4-1 victory.

Goalkeepers featured in a couple of interesting moments suggesting they are still a protected species when it comes to officials.

After blatantly rugby tackling Newcastle's Miguel Almiron on the wing, Aston Villa keeper Emiliano Martinez was fortunate to get away with just a yellow although under current rules it was the correct decision.

However, when fouls are so pre-meditated as that a red card would not be not out of order.

In another incident, Everton thought they had scored when Fulham keeper Bernd Leno dropped the ball going for a cross and the Toffees put the ball in the back of the net. However, referee Stuart Atwell blew for a perceived foul on the keeper by Everton's James Tarkowski.

Replays clearly showed Tarkowski didn't do anything wrong and it was purely a goalkeeping error.

However, it was reported the Everton scorer was offside which would have ruled out the goal anyway.

It's encouraging that there is still a healthy debate over disputed decisions that keep us going until the following week. With spicy fixtures coming up this weekend, you can be sure there will be plenty to discuss next week.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT