There was quite a bit of refereeing controversy this weekend in the Premier League. It was all going so well before the international break, but it’s all changed again.
In the Man City v Southampton game, Jon Moss made the correct decision when Kyle Walker upended Adam Armstrong. It wasn’t a red card, however, because Walker made a genuine attempt to play the ball.
I’m not sure why Martin Atkinson (VAR) reversed the decision for the penalty, though doing so for the red card would’ve been correct.
Dermot Gallagher and Chris Foy are employees of the PGMOL and they’re paid to come out and say that’s not a penalty, but I’m sorry, myself and many others in football believe it was a spot-kick but not a sending off offence.
Martin had an off weekend. During West Ham v Man United, there were at least four penalties in the game but three of them that were nailed on in my opinion weren’t given, and Martin was in a great position for all of them.
The first one with Aaron Wan-Bissaka on Tomas Soucek. It’s a clear foul on Soucek and I don’t understand what he’s seen. A clear and obvious error from Martin, so why hasn’t the VAR, Darren England, come in and recommend a review?
Coufal on Ronaldo… he sticks out his knee and invites Ronaldo to go over it. You can’t blame the Man United star, it’s a clear penalty.
Kurt Zouma… gets nowhere near the ball and connects with Ronaldo, and that’s another definite spot-kick.
Perhaps the most incredible error of the lot was when both Martin and his assistant didn’t give the penalty against Luke Shaw for one of the most blatant handballs seen this season. They were both looking right at it!
VAR came in on that one, so why on earth didn’t they do so with the others?
I think Martin will be very disappointed when he looks back over his performance in that game.
The penalty given in the Brighton v Leicester game is a clear error by Stuart Attwell. That’s never a penalty. It’s a clear holding offence by Maupay on Vestergaard. Leicester should’ve had a free-kick.
Another clear error by all, including VAR, for the second Leicester goal that was disallowed for offside. Harvey Barnes was not interfering with play, and it’s just another poor decision in an awful weekend for PGMOL’s finest.