Former Premier League referee Mark Halsey has claimed that the handball incident involving Wolves defender Roman Saiss in Aston Villa’s 1-0 win over the Old Gold was “a deliberate act”.
After a hectic game where numerous yellow cards, as well as two red cards, were brandished throughout the match at Molineux from Mike Dean, Villa snatched all three points after Anwar El Ghazi scored a penalty in injury time to win the game for the visitors.
During the game, Villa had a penalty shout denied after Saiss apparently touched the ball with his arm in the Wolves penalty box, to which Villans manager Dean Smith said: “He looks like he’s moved his body towards his arm with the ball so it should have been a penalty.”
Speaking exclusively to This Is Futbol, Halsey had this to say on the incident.
He said: “I thought Dean Smith was absolutely spot-on, because you can clearly see it. Was his arm in a natural position? You could say yes, but he knew what he was doing – he then deliberately moved his arm and his body towards the ball.
“Now the Premier League come out with a statement to say it hit him on the shoulder. Now, we can clearly see it didn’t hit him on the shoulder, it hit him around about the elbow.
“I was surprised that we didn’t see a review on that incident and I do think that that was handball, a deliberate act by the Wolves player and a penalty should have been given.
“I think that was a clear and obvious error and that was a clear handball.”
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Seeing as how Villa just about managed to win the game against Wolves, this should take their mind off the fact that they should have been awarded another penalty in the match as a result of Saiss’ handball.
However, given how Villa were denied a late goal in their defeat against West Ham United last month, it’s not a surprise that Smith has shared his annoyance over VAR yet again.