You would be forgiven for pondering the choice to disclaim Crystal Palace a penalty was unjust with a few of 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 shortly 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 seem to be a much bigger tragedy than a professional aim 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 influence 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, significantly at full pace, and the ball is at all times going in direction of the goalkeeper,” he stated.
“We don’t assume that the motion actually impacts Guehi’s means to get to the ball.
“The referee noticed it that approach, didn’t penalise [Van Dijk] and when the VAR checked it, they noticed it in the identical approach and cleared it for what it was, a really fast holding that didn’t influence Guehi’s means to play the ball.”
He added: “When you take 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 for those who put it at 25 p.c, it makes it 4 instances as lengthy and naturally, it could actually look much more impactful as properly.
“If the referee had given a penalty, seen Van Dijk pulling the arm of Guehi, we might have left it as a penalty. However on steadiness, we favor no penalty and positively no intervention by the VAR.”
It was bemusing to see the response in real-time, nevertheless it was actually exaggerated within the days after as if it was a terrific injustice.
