At what point does attacking play start? To my understanding, when you’re attacking, and there is any contact, deliberate or not, with the ball from the attackers hand/arm in the build up, it’s deemed a handball. I mean, they were reviewing Haaland’s second goal for handball in case it brushed his elbow even though if there was contact, it would have done nothing to assist him in scoring that goal. Then, when defending, it has to be a deliberate handball or your hand is in an unnatural position when it hits the ball. Distance between hand and ball from when the ball is struck and speed of that ball is also considered. All well and good.
But now, same game, Chelsea vs City. City have the ball with their goalkeeper who kicks it against Walkers hand. If they had been defending and a Chelsea player kicked it against his hand, no penalty or free kick. Fair enough considering the above criteria. But if City had possession wouldn’t that then be an attacking phase? And if so, wouldn’t ANY handball be a handball?
Your understanding isn’t quite right. Under most circumstances, you should use the normal considerations like whether the arm was in a natural position. The only instance when this isn’t the case is if an attacker scores directly after the ball has touched their hand, in which case the goal must be disallowed no matter what (which is why they were checking Haaland’s goal).