Footage from Aston Villa’s weekend game seems to suggest that they were on the wrong side of a controversial offside call over the weekend.
In their most recent Premier League outing, the Villans looked to turn around their poor form as they faced a tricky assignment at Villa Park.
They played Manchester City and fought hard to claim a point in a 1-1 draw during a match that could have actually seen them come away with all three points.
Indeed, with the scores level and only about 10 minutes left on the clock, Philippe Coutinho picked up the ball on the edge of the box, dribbled past a City man but was flagged offside just before he curled his effort into the top corner.
Footage of the incident, as well as a still image, clearly shows the Villa midfielder was onside and so play should not have been halted so suddenly.
TIF Thoughts on the offside and Aston Villa…
No matter how biased you may be, there is certainly no arguing against the fact that the Brazilian is clearly onside. What’s more, linesmen are instructed to let play go on, even if they think there is an offside, just so no mistakes such as this are made.
In this incident, though, the official flags Coutinho far too early, and when the Villan then fires the ball at goal, the play has already been stopped.
As seen in the footage, he finds the back of the net with great quality. However, City goalkeeper Ederson doesn’t exactly try his hardest to stop it, so we will never know whether he would have been beaten or not.
Even so, Villa should have at least been afforded the opportunity to see what would have come of the effort. And considering Coutinho’s pretty impressive ability to score from outside the box – having scored five free-kicks in the Premier League – he may well have fired his side into the lead.
With Steven Gerrard and co struggling at the bottom of the table, that goal could have been a hugely galvanising moment for the whole team. In the end, the rash flag means we will never know what could have been.
Do you think Philippe Coutinho would have scored if the flag didn't go up?
Yes
No
