'I'll take it': Alan Shearer says his piece on controversial late penalty for Newcastle United in win over Leeds United
Newcastle United and Leeds United gave us a game for the ages on Wednesday night as they played out a highly entertaining seven-goal thriller at St James' Park.
Leeds led the game on three occasions only to come away on the receiving end of a 4-3 defeat. Leeds became only the second team to lose a game after taking the lead three times, the other team was ... Leeds United in 2022, losing 4-3 to Tottenham Hotspur.
The game wasn't without its controversial moments either. Referee Michael Salisbury didn't have the best of games and seemed to rush into a couple of huge decisions that massively affected the game.
In each half, Salisbury was quick to award a penalty for each side for handball. However, neither really seemed to fit the brief of what a handball should be. Malick Thiaw had his arms out to break his fall, and the ball hit him, while Brenden Aaronson had his arm tucked in, and it was only when the ball hit his arm that it moved into an unnatural position, making it look far worse than it was.
Alan Shearer wasn't too displeased to see Michael Salisbury make another poor decision
Obviously, we thought one was more contentious than the other due to our bias, but in reality, neither should have been given. For whatever reason, though, the penalty against Malick Thiaw is forgottenabout and it's only the Aaranson decision that's under scrutiny.
Even Alan Shearer admitted on The Rest Is Football podcast that it was never a penalty, but of course, like all of us, he was happy to see it given.
“I’ll always give you an honest opinion. What’s he meant to do with his arms when he’s going to challenge like that? It’s just not handball. It can’t be handball. I just don’t agree with it.
"Obviously, I'll take it."
Handball rules need a serious overhaul
At the time, and indeed the next day, we were completely convinced that it was a penalty. Of course it was. However, the more you see it, the more you realise that it was a poor decision.
We just wish the Malick Thiaw incident had been given the same attention, because we believe that it was equally as accidental.
Something is potentially being done about the offside rule with the Arsene Wenger law being strongly considered, next we need to fix handballs.
