Tony Cascarino has defended Davinson Sanchez after his blunder-filled derby display and insisted Arsenal should not have been awarded a last-gasp penalty.
The Tottenham centre-back was widely criticised for bringing down Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang late in the north London derby with a challenge that many insisted was a deserved spot-kick.
Former striker and big-name pundit Cascarino claimed it should not have been a penalty and called for a change in the laws “before it’s too late”.
“Some of the penalties I’ve seen awarded this season are laughable in comparison to how the game was played in my day and in the years after,” Cascarino told the Times.
“Strikers wanted to shoot, to score goals; if they got wiped out then they got a penalty. But now I watch the game and I see forwards getting in to the box and you can tell that all they are doing is trying to win a penalty.
“Aubameyang did it in the north London derby, getting into the box, going nowhere, getting the slightest touch in the back from Tottenham defender Davinson Sánchez and going down. It wasn’t a foul and definitely not enough force for him to fall to the turf and yet we all debated it based on ‘there is contact’ and he had the chance to win a big game against rivals.”
OPINION
Cascarino’s point is a valuable and well-argued one, although he is wrong in stating Aubameyang should not have had a penalty. The contact from Sanchez was sufficient enough for it to be worthy of a spot-kick, even allowing for the striker clearly playing for it. The centre-back should not have fallen so willingly into Aubameyang’s trap, and must learn not to be so reckless in his own box. That said, Cascarino makes an excellent point about the number of soft penalties being given, which reached a new nadir with the last-minute penalty awarded to Manchester United against Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday night. That was ridiculous, given the build-up. It is not the fault of match officials, especially. Or, VAR. Those who can’t see the immense advantage of getting decisions correct based on the laws of the game need to get their heads in the sand. The fault lies in the laws which are loaded too much in favour of attacking players in the box.