You possibly can be forgiven for considering the choice to disclaim Crystal Palace a penalty was unjust with among the protection it acquired, however the clarification for its dismissal makes full sense.
When Virgil van Dijk tugged on the arm of Marc Guehi within the penalty field, Palace instantly made claims for a spot kick, however referee Simon Hooper rapidly waved it away.
Commentators on TNT Sports activities wouldn’t let it go lengthy after the match, whereas a sure report within the Occasions made it look like a much bigger tragedy than a reliable objective by no means being awarded.
On the time, the Premier League‘s Match Centre social media account defined that the “problem was not sustained holding and had no affect on the play.”
Was it careless from Van Dijk? Probably. Nevertheless, the tug had no bearing on Guehi’s means to have an affect on a ball that was destined to be in Alisson‘s possession.
Within the newest episode of ‘Match Officers Mic’d Up’, Howard Webb defined how the incident was seen by VAR operator David Coote.
“On this case, we see an motion by Van Dijk that may be very fast, notably at full pace, and the ball is all the time going in direction of the goalkeeper,” he stated.
“We don’t suppose that the motion actually impacts Guehi’s means to get to the ball.
“The referee noticed it that means, didn’t penalise [Van Dijk] and when the VAR checked it, they noticed it in the identical means and cleared it for what it was, a really fast holding that didn’t affect Guehi’s means to play the ball.”
He added: “If you happen to have a look at the [incident] at 50 p.c [speed], in fact, it’s going to double the period of time the holding occurs and in the event you put it at 25 p.c, it makes it 4 occasions as lengthy and naturally, it could possibly look much more impactful as nicely.
“If the referee had given a penalty, seen Van Dijk pulling the arm of Guehi, we’d have left it as a penalty. However on stability, we choose no penalty and positively no intervention by the VAR.”
It was bemusing to see the response in real-time, nevertheless it was definitely exaggerated within the days after as if it was an incredible injustice.
