It’s the question of the Premier League weekend, really. The crazy events at Stamford Bridge when Chelsea entertained Manchester United have led to the bigger debate over consistency in refereeing, VAR and even the interpretation of the laws of the game. And given the utter confusion, it’s a market you should look to take advantage of over at thegamer.eu where you can find the most favourable markets to play by comparing many different casinos.
Marcus Rashford thumped in a free-kick, Edouard Mendy parried and the ball bounced up between Chelsea’s Reece James and United’s Mason Greenwood.
Both moved to the ball, James’ hands slightly raised. Watching it live, it looked like it was a handball by Greenwood before the commentary team alerted us to the fact that Stuart Attwell, the referee for the match, had been informed that VAR were taking a look. The odds on it being given as a spot-kick at this early stage were probably marginal, however, as there were no great appeals from the United players (always a good sign as to how much of a penalty things probably are).
When the game next stopped, Attwell was invited to take a look at the replay for himself as the VAR on duty felt it was a handball by James and, therefore, United should have a spot-kick. Given how rarely a referee sticks with his original decision, the in-game betting odds for United to score first dropped like a stone as everyone expected Attwell to point to the spot.
Yet after reviewing the footage on the pitchside monitor, Attwell surprised everyone by backing his original decision that it was not a penalty – cue pandemonium on the sideline as United manager Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer was, obviously, convinced that James’ arms were in an unnatural position and his hand clearly touched the ball.
Now, common sense tells us all that it wasn’t a deliberate handball at all – especially if you think back to the days where it had to be deliberate handball to be a penalty and not just a case of the ball hitting your arm or hand no matter what.
But, and this is where the inconsistency starts to ramp up faster than the odds of a United yellow card for dissent, that would have been a penalty in so many of the earlier games in the season. Therefore, had United played this game in November, for example, there is every chance Bruno Fernandes would have stepped up, rolled it past Mendy and United have something to defend for the rest of the game.
And this is the key point – how can something like that be adjusted mid-season? If it was handball earlier in the season, surely it has to remain so for the entire competition to allow it to be as fair as possible across the board?
By that not being given, surely all the sides who feel wronged by handballs given in even crazier circumstances have a case to argue?
I’d love to see the betting odds on Roy Hodgson getting a point back after Palace were done over in the Everton game, for example.
Madness – almost as mad as Attwell saying (allegedly) to Harry Maguire that he couldn’t give it as it would be too controversial.
Phew, at least we avoided that – right?
