Fine with it. Seems a clear foul that he just missed. I’d also point out that the fact that Gabriel Jesus stopped playing, expecting the foul call, probably helped tilt this in the direction of needing an intervention.
Of course I agree that was a foul. Just playing devil's advocate. Anyway, for me this feels more like "defender carelessly put his foot into the path of Saka" vs "Saka kicked defenders leg". I'm fine with the non-intervention I guess, but to me it's pretty high up on the clear PK scale.
Yeah, I just don’t see too much similarity or draw the same conclusion. In the Norwich situation the player is directly behind his opponent, who possesses or is clearer about to possess the ball. It’s a clip from behind, even if unintentional. Always a foul. In the Arsenal example, both players are pursuing a ball and possession is in doubt. If the defender hasn’t done anything wrong with his upper body, I just don’t see the argument that the lower body contact is a careless trip. I mean, from your .gif above I see it, I suppose. I just don’t think there’s enough there.
I'm split on this one. Half of me thinks he was off-balance, and wasn't in full control of himself, and he should get some leniency. Half of me thinks he was in ENOUGH control that he should have been able to challenge less recklessly. There's no doubt about the level of force or the part of the body he connected with. I think red is the right call, but I do have sympathy for him.
I don't. Watch it again. He changes direction, takes three steps, and tries to tackle the ball. Yes he's off balance but he had multiple chances to decide not to challenge for he ball in that manner.
Premier League fans: We love this lenient officiating and not calling these soft pushing fouls. Also Premier League fans: Why didn't the ref call that push that led to the red card tackle?
Matchweek 3 Man City - Arsenal Referee: Martin Atkinson. Assistants: Lee Betts, Richard West. Fourth official: Andy Madley. VAR: Darren England. Assistant VAR: Peter Kirkup. Aston Villa - Brentford Referee: Peter Bankes. Assistants: James Mainwaring, Wade Smith. Fourth official: Oliver Langford. VAR: Lee Mason. Assistant VAR: Mark Scholes. Brighton - Everton Referee: Jonathan Moss. Assistants: Marc Perry, Timothy Wood. Fourth official: Tony Harrington. VAR: Simon Hooper. Assistant VAR: Eddie Smart. Newcastle - Southampton Referee: Paul Tierney. Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Ian Hussin. Fourth official: John Brooks. VAR: Mike Dean. Assistant VAR: Dan Robathan. Norwich - Leicester Referee: Robert Jones. Assistants: Scott Ledger, Derek Eaton. Fourth official: Keith Stroud. VAR: David Coote. Assistant VAR: Nick Hopton. West Ham - Crystal Palace Referee: Stuart Attwell. Assistants: Dan Cook, Harry Lennard. Fourth official: Michael Salisbury. VAR: Graham Scott. Assistant VAR: Simon Long. Liverpool - Chelsea Referee: Anthony Taylor. Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn. Fourth official: Craig Pawson. VAR: Chris Kavanagh. Assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis. Burnley - Leeds Referee: Michael Oliver. Assistants: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett. Fourth official: Craig Pawson. VAR: Chris Kavanagh. Assistant VAR: Sian Massey-Ellis. Tottenham - Watford Referee: Andre Marriner. Assistants: Simon Long, Eddie Smart. Fourth official: Graham Scott. VAR: Jarred Gillett. Assistant VAR: James Mainwaring. Wolves - Man Utd Referee: Mike Dean. Assistants: Darren Cann, Dan Robathan. Fourth official: Robert Jones. VAR: Stuart Attwell. Assistant VAR: Neil Davies. Taylor for the big match, Atkinson for the "big" match, Attwell for the London derby. Dean referees Wolves - Man Utd for the third time in four seasons - it was also in this fixture that he issued his 100th red card to Ashley Young in 2019.
"Big" matches: Leicester - Man City (Community Shield): Tierney Tottenham - Man City: Taylor Arsenal - Chelsea: Tierney Man City - Arsenal: Atkinson Liverpool - Chelsea: Taylor Distribution of these matches in the EPL: Taylor: 2 Atkinson: 1 Tierney: 1
I’m still not sure exactly how much contact Xhaka made with Cancelo, but no problems with that send off for me. Pretty much the textbook definition of a two-footed, out of control lunge. Off topic, but Arsenal are showing more than a little bit of last season’s Schalke…..
VAR looked at this and did not disallow a goal.. presumably because that happened off the ball? What looks bad to me is that just a few minutes later an Arsenal defender gets booked for something similar. Ignore what the tweet says, obviously disgruntled fans. 1431587799426293768 is not a valid tweet id I am obviously a bit biased but this looks like a foul to me. Thoughts?
I thought it wouldn’t be given since it came up off his thigh… but he did seem to sweep at it with his naturally positioned arm
The arm forward makes it bad, however I'm not convinced the ball wasn't already clear by the time the arm went forward. The red is my question. The ball was thigh to arm and then the CR looked at a still photo only for 1 second to award a red. Or was going to the monitor just for show and the CR was giving the red based on what VAR already told him?
Straight from the Law, first bullet on handball: • deliberately touches the ball with their hand/arm, for example moving the hand/arm towards the ball The example is exactly what happened. This was an easy red card. Only strange thing was Taylor being shown only the still, but English processes around VAR aren’t the best, as we’ve noted in the past.
They removed those considerations for this year's laws. The only handball consideration now is "making the body unnaturally bigger" (along with of course the "deliberately moving the ball towards the arm" consideration).
This would be a great training video on how NOT to handle VAR. It resulted in the shenanigans just before the PK, the keeper drilling someone with the ball right after the goal and being touched by several players on his way to the locker room for half time. Just looking at the image, can you come to the conclusion that this is making yourself bigger? He didn't see the awkward arm movement. Not a great way to sell the PK.
If I had the benefit of VAR, I would use it to sell basically every call. I mean maybe Anthony only looked for a split second to try to "sell" like it was completely obvious. that he didn't even have to look. But go to the monitor, look at multiple replays, stand there for a minute and at least make it look like you're carefully analyzing it and discussing it with the VAR booth so everyone is in agreement. When I watch the Inside VAR videos MLS puts up each week, that's what they do.