The decision to disallow Manchester City’s late goal against Tottenham was correct, Dermot Gallagher said on the latest Ref Watch.
It is only the second weekend of the Premier League season and VAR is already making its presence felt, with more incidents for Gallagher to analyse and explain.
With the score 2-2, Gabriel Jesus thought he had scored the winning goal in the 93rd minute. However, after a VAR review, the goal was ruled out as the ball touched the arm of Aymeric Laporte on the way through, much to the dismay of the home contingent.
Though Laporte’s handball looked accidental, under rules introduced on June 1 by IFAB, any goal created by an accidental handball is to be disallowed. Therefore, the VAR decision was correct.
“As much as people debate, yes it is [the right decision], because you see that it strikes Laporte’s arm. The minute that happens, it can’t be a goal and for two weeks running, VAR has picked that up post-decision and it is given correctly.
“We saw three handball goals in the Premier League last year – Willy Boly [against Man City], Sergio Aguero [against Arsenal] and Nathan Redmond [against West Ham] – and everybody thought that it wasn’t acceptable. Everybody had this notion that you can’t have a goal scored by the hand or the arm so the law was brought into place by IFAB (International Football Association Board) for the start of the season.”
(Sky Sports)
