BBC Pundit Chris Sutton was less than impressed with Newcastle United centre-back Fabian Schär at the weekend.
Newcastle were awarded a controversial penalty on Saturday evening when Wolves forward Hwang Hee-Chan was adjudged to have fouled Schär in the box at the end of the first half.
Callum Wilson stepped up to convert the penalty, maintaining his 100% record from the spot for the Magpies, but questions lingered about the decision.
Schär and Hwang were both going for the same ball and while Schär did get there first, Hwang had swung to make the clearance and took the defender instead of the ball. At least that's how it appeared in real-time and that's why Anthony Taylor awarded the penalty.
Upon review, however, it was clear that the contact was minimal, and if anything, the Newcastle man initiated it by stepping across Hwang to make contact. Hwang even stopped himself from going for the ball.
The thinking was that because it looked like a stonewall penalty in real-time Taylor made the right call on the pitch and it therefore wasn't a clear and obvious error so VAR couldn't overturn it. Although they sure took their time coming to that conclusion.
That explanation is not washing with Sutton, though, with the former Celtic striker airing his grievances on BBC 5 Live last night.
“Do you know this week’s winner of the simulation game? It was ridiculous from Rodri, but a Swiss Roll from Fabian Schär.
What was he doing going down like that? You are a good player, Fabian, but that wasn’t a fabulous moment. It wasn’t a fabulous career moment. You are so much better than that. Just stop it. You are a good player. Just cut it out.
It doesn’t matter where you are around the world. We will hunt you down. You will win these awards, these awards you don’t want to win.”
It seems a bit harsh to call it a dive from the 'magnificent' centre-back, but we will concede that he was definitely looking for the contact and, shall we say, he made the most of it.
Still, Fab, an award is an award eh? Good on ya!
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
12 | 16 | 31 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
12 | 5 | 23 |
3 |
Chelsea
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
4 |
Arsenal
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
5 |
Brighton
|
12 | 5 | 22 |
6 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
12 | 14 | 19 |
7 |
Nottingham Forest
|
12 | 2 | 19 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
12 | 0 | 19 |
9 |
Fulham
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
10 |
Newcastle United
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
11 |
Brentford
|
12 | 0 | 17 |
12 |
Manchester United
|
12 | 0 | 16 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
12 | -1 | 15 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
12 | -4 | 15 |
15 |
Everton
|
12 | -7 | 11 |
16 |
Leicester
|
12 | -8 | 10 |
17 |
Wolves
|
12 | -8 | 9 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
12 | -10 | 9 |
19 |
Crystal Palace
|
12 | -7 | 8 |
20 |
Southampton
|
12 | -15 | 4 |