Dermot Gallagher weighs in on Newcastle United's winner - VAR checked three incidents before allowing goal

Harvey Barnes bagged a crucial brace for Newcastle United on Saturday as the Magpies beat Manchester City in the Premier League at St James' Park for the first time since 2019.

Manchester City were furious with the officials at full-time, feeling that they had been robbed of several decisions.

They had three penalty appeals turned down, which we've looked at already this morning, but they were also adamant that Harvey Barnes' winner shouldn't have stood.

There was an almost five-minute VAR check that followed the ball crossing the line to it being awarded, so Man City can't say they weren't thorough.

Dermot Gallagher feels Newcastle's second goal should have stood

Sky Sports News' Ref Watch segment, where they wheel out former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher to give his opinion on controversial decisions from the weekend, covered Barnes' goal and Gallagher confidently stated that there was nothing wrong with the goal.

The three incidents that were checked were a push on goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, which Gallagher and Jay Bothroyd both said the same thing - There was so many players in the box that contact was inevitable, and goalkeepers need to be stronger in those situations.

There were two offside appeals in the buildup, the initial cross for which it looked like Bruno Guimaraes was offside, and then a check for Harvey Barnes just before the finish. Barnes was clearly onside as he was behind the ball, but there's a strong case to be made for Bruno Guimaraes being offside.

Make it make sense

If we were Man City fans, we'd have been a bit miffed by this one. It took forever to check, it looked offside to the naked eye and then when you see the 3D image created by the semi-automated system, the line is drawn from the bottom of Dias' sleeve, but the rules clearly state that they should be drawn from the defender's armpit.

1.⁠ ⁠Offside position

It is not an offence to be in an offside position.

A player is in an offside position if:
any part of the head, body or feet is in the opponents’ half (excluding the halfway line) and
any part of the head, body or feet is nearer to the opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second-last opponent
The hands and arms of all players, including the goalkeepers, are not considered. For the purposes of determining offside, the upper boundary of the arm is in line with the bottom of the armpit.

There was a very similar incident on Sunday with Aston Villa versus Leeds, which was even more contentious. If the semi-automated system is using sleeves as a marker, then the rules need to be changed, surely?

That being said, we're not complaining about it this week because we benefited from it.