Sky Sports pundit John Salako has given his thoughts on the controversial penalty decision concerning Everton in their recent Premier League loss.
Everton’s hopes of staying in the Premier League suffered a serious blow this past weekend as they fell to a 1-0 defeat at Goodison Park against the reigning champions, but they may very well have been in a position to grab a point late on had a potential handball been given in their favour.
In the dying moments of the game, the ball appeared to strike Manchester City man Rodri on the arm as he controlled it before clearing away, and even when the decision went to the VAR, the referee’s decision to not award a penalty was upheld and the away side snuck away with the win.
The decision caused a lot of controversy in the aftermath of the game, with Everton boss Frank Lampard stating that his three-year-old daughter could tell that it was a penalty, and taking to Twitter in the aftermath of the incident, Salako did not hold back in his view on the matter:
TIF Thoughts on John Salako’s comments about the decision in the Everton game…
Will Everton get relegated this season?
Yes
No
The allegations that Salako is putting out here are pretty severe, but it is something that is becoming more prominent in the English game, with Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers making similar accusations of bias towards bigger clubs back in December.
However, whilst English referees might be perceived as one of the worst sets of officials in world football, unless there is something to seriously back up the suggestion that there is some sort of foul play going on, then all it’s going to be is hearsay and conjecture.
Plus it wasn’t a guarantee that Everton would have got the point, as they still would have needed to take the kick against a goalkeeper who has saved 73.8% of the shots he’s faced this season (seventh-best in the league, as per FBRef), so it’s not as if they were definitively robbed of a point in this situation.
Let’s just hope that it isn’t something that ends up being a talking point at the end of the season like Sheffield United’s goal that wasn’t given against Aston Villa, which played a key part in keeping the Villans in the league a few seasons ago.
In other news: Huge upgrade on 28 y/o: Everton fans should be excited after hearing who could join – opinion