Sky Sports Monday morning staple, Ref Watch was always going to be interesting for Newcastle United and Arsenal fans this morning.
Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher was back on Sky Sports today for Ref Watch to give his view on the controversial decisions of the weekend. Of course, Anthony Gordon's winner against Arsenal was up for discussion.
By now everyone has seen the incident, or at least heard/read a report on it, but let's go over it again.
Anthony Gordon poked the ball home in the 64th minute sparking a four-minute VAR check while they looked at three key moments leading up to the goal.
The initial check was to see if Joe Willock had actually kept the ball in play. VAR ruled that it could not 100% say that the entire ball had crossed the line, therefore the on-field decision stood.
Then there was whether or not Gordon was offside, but there was no available angle to map the point of contact from Joelinton's header to be able to determine whether Gordon was behind the ball when it was played. Again, the on-field decision has to stand.
The one that could have seen the goal ruled out was whether Joelinton pushed Gabriel when going up for the header. This is a 50/50 call but all the officials either agreed, or didn't make a strong enough case to overturn the on-field decision. The goal stands.
Now Dermot Gallagher is one of those who thought it was a push, but he still thinks the officials got it right on the day.
"That's the crux of the matter - it's a subjective decision. For me, I think it's a push. I've spoken to many who think it's not, I've spoken to many who think it is - the subjective decision is the dilemma.
"The referee said no, the VAR looked at it and thought it wasn't enough to overrule the referee, so that's where we're at.
"People say to me, if you'd have picked number two, the push, the other two would have gone away. That's great, but the referee didn't pick the push; he chose to say it was physical contact rather than a foul and the VAR backed him."
We wonder if Mikel Arteta has watched this back yet when he's not so fired up from the game.
It may be our black and white tinted glasses, but that's a goal all day for us.
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Manchester City
|
9 | 11 | 23 |
2 |
Liverpool
|
9 | 12 | 22 |
3 |
Arsenal
|
9 | 7 | 18 |
4 |
Aston Villa
|
9 | 5 | 18 |
5 |
Chelsea
|
9 | 8 | 17 |
6 |
Brighton
|
9 | 4 | 16 |
7 |
Nottingham Forest
|
9 | 4 | 16 |
8 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
9 | 8 | 13 |
9 |
Brentford
|
9 | 0 | 13 |
10 |
Fulham
|
9 | 0 | 12 |
11 |
Bournemouth
|
9 | 0 | 12 |
12 |
Newcastle United
|
9 | -1 | 12 |
13 |
West Ham United
|
9 | -3 | 11 |
14 |
Manchester United
|
9 | -3 | 11 |
15 |
Leicester
|
9 | -4 | 9 |
16 |
Everton
|
9 | -6 | 9 |
17 |
Crystal Palace
|
9 | -5 | 6 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
9 | -11 | 4 |
19 |
Wolves
|
9 | -13 | 2 |
20 |
Southampton
|
9 | -13 | 1 |