Former Tottenham legend Graham Roberts has blasted former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher’s explanation as to why Michael Oliver decided not to award Manchester City a penalty after a controversial incident during their game at Anfield on Sunday.
A low cross from the City left struck Liverpool full back Trent Alexander-Arnold in the arm early in the match but the referee waved away protests for a penalty. To make matters worse for Pep Guardiola’s side, the hosts went down the field to open the scoring and VAR decided not to reverse the call.
Dermot Gallagher backed Oliver’s and VAR’s call by explaining that the ball came too quickly at Alexander-Arnold for the England defender to have taken his hand away (Sky Sports).
This explanation certainly didn’t sit well with Roberts who labelled Gallagher’s explanation as a joke and questioned why a penalty was given for a similar incident during the opening minutes of the Champions League final between Spurs and Liverpool when the ball was adjudged to have struck Moussa Sissoko’s arm from close range.
Spurs Web Opinion
Even though the modifications to the handball rule were bought in to make decisions more straight forward, there still seems to be a fair bit of subjectivity involved in handball calls. If the referees are going to stick by their interpretation of handballs, then what was the point of introducing the new rules in the first place.
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