Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has said that Manchester United should not have been awarded their penalty against Everton on Sunday.
The Red Devils were given a spot kick after forward Anthony Martial went down under Idrissa Gueye’s challenge, with Paul Pogba eventually putting the ball in the back of the net to set United on their way to a 2-1 victory.
However, Clattenburg feels that the wrong decision was made by referee Jon Moss: “That was not a penalty,” he wrote in the Mail. “Idrissa Gana Gueye clearly got a touch on the ball and you could see it change direction.
“After the Everton midfielder won the ball, Anthony Martial exaggerated his movement to make it look like a penalty. With his assistant on the far side unable to help him, referee Jon Moss would have wanted to get a better angle to assess the challenge,” he finished.
OPINION
Clattenburg is absolutely spot on. Even the most ardent United fan must admit that Gueye got the ball. Martial was running with the ball at his feet and Gueye came in with a perfectly timed tackle that took the ball away from the Frenchman. Martial then moved his body into the Everton midfielder to make it look as if more contact was actually made. Fortunately for him the referee fell for his gamesmanship. The Toffees have every right to feel aggrieved, though, because it was clear both at full speed and, even more so, once the footage was slowed down in replays. The Premier League should look at giving Martial a retrospective ban or something because otherwise this sort of thing is going to carry on happening. There’s no punishment for a dive if it’s successful in hoodwinking the official, it’s simply written off as an in-game decision. That’s not right and something needs to be done.