Most people turned to congratulate Chelsea for the fascinating game, but indeed Manchester City has a few advantages over key decisions. The most apparent controversies were the soft penalty awarded again, and no foul for the handball. Sadly if the standard of refereeing is normal, Chelsea should deserve a win.
The handball was a case of the ref/linesman not seeing it and because it was outside of the box VAR couldn’t do anything so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt even if I think it was pretty incompetent of them not it be watching properly. The first pen was a pile of bullshit though.
Wasn’t Walker also pushed?
Handball is such a weird one because it would’ve been a dangerous place to have a free kick, not sure why they don’t look at those ones when it’s so clear
I wonder what % of free kicks are scored from that position
Free kicks taken as shots have a 6% goal rate overall. So that’s 1 in 17.
Being charitable probably between 1-2 in 10 from there I’d guess.
Mudryk pushed Walker though. Biggest reason why it should not be given.
Would slow the game down more than it has already slowed down. I’m fine with it.
I could see the ref missing it, but the linesman is on that side of the pitch. How could he miss it
People complain about this then also complain about VAR being a thing. Either you like “human error” or you don’t.
Linesman missed a blatant corner for Arsenal the other day when it clear was you like rebounded off an opponent not 2ft away from him.
It’s like how much clearer does something need to be
Refs have line technology so if the ball had completely crossed the line, which it didnt, they would have called it.
It went out of play and they called a goal kick. It for sure went out of play. They just gave the wrong decision even though it happened right in front of the linesman.
Exactly, the whole fucking stadium and world saw it
Yeah. On replays. Don’t think the on field refs have that advantage.
I was there. Can confirm we all saw it
If you blink, you miss it. These things happen. People forget what it was like in the past. The most incredible infractions would happen all the time. It’s unfortunately normal.
Wtf, it was outside the box and Walker wasn’t even looking nor could anticipate the ball. The Chelsea penalty however was nonsense. Dias got the ball and he dived
Lol
How about VAR just be involved in all decisions to make sure the correct call is made.
They absolutely could justify it as stopping a goal scoring opportunity
Eh there’s way too much uncertainty around where the ball would have gone if Walker didn’t block it, if there was only Chelsea players around and Edersons pass was obviously going to fall to us it should be a red since no goalkeeper in goal = goalscoring chance if that fall to us, but it’s too unclear where the ball was going to go to say Walker prevented a goalscoring opportunity. Looked like Ederson was trying to pass to a defender on the touchline and that’s where the pass was headed
There’s no reason for Walker to handball it deliberately, nothing to be gained from intercepting his own keepers clearance.
It was a clearance. It was headed 60 meters down the field. It certainly wasn’t going to create an immediate goal scoring opportunity.
It wasn’t awarded a handball bc of the exemption for a ball kicked by a teammate. The end.
As much as it pains me to defend Man City I can’t agree with that, it was blocking a clearance from his own keeper, if anything a handball in that situation is more likely to create a chance for the opposition than to block it which it may well have done if Sterling hadn’t stopped to appeal for the hand ball and had instead put pressure on Gvardiol who had the ball in a much more dangerous position than he would have been if the ball hadn’t been obstructed.
No they couldn’t in any way.
That’s not an excuse. I bet you if it was the opposite then Rodri would be crying to the ref and he would bend the rules and give a free kick
How are all the refs on the field NOT watching the ball? Like none of them? Bull
A pile of bullshit because it’s popular to root against City? Because if it was given to say Luton vs Chelsea I’m sure everyone would say it was the right decision
Bullshit because Haaland realises that he wasn’t going to get to the ball so flopped to the ground in a completely unnatural way to buy a penalty, and I’d say the same if another team got a penalty in the same situation, but as we’ve seen this season City are the team that get the soft penalties and not the other way around