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Ex-Everton players & former refs agree Arsenal penalty call was wrong
Pundits, ex-referees, and even ex-Everton players have come together to agree that Everton shouldn’t have been awarded a penalty in their draw with Arsenal on Saturday.
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Arsenal only took a point from their final trip to Goodison Park on Saturday, despite the hosts only having two shots on target.
Everton were always unlikely to score without a little help, but they got it in the form of a contentious penalty early in the second half. Myles Lewis-Skelly had jostled with Jack Harrison, and when Harrison pulled Lewis-Skelly to the ground, the Arsenal man brushed Harrison as he fell.
Rather than penalising Harrison’s pull, the referee gave a penalty against Lewis-Skelly for the aftermath.
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The decision was so poor that even those of an Everton persuasion agreed that it was the wrong call.
“My initial thought was that it’s a soft penalty, it’s probably not a penalty,” former Everton defender Ashley Williams told Final Score. “Jack Harrison was in quite a decent position to go and get his finish off [but] as I’ve seen it, I don’t think it was really justified.”
“Very, very, very soft,” Chris Sutton agreed.
The BBC’s Match of the Day pundits were of a similar mind, both describing the decision in the same way.
“I think it’s a really bad decision,” Danny Murphy said. “It’s never a penalty for me. You know, it’s a bit soft, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, I think it’s very, very soft,” Alan Shearer agreed. “I think either way you look at it… No, not enough to give a penalty for me, no, and they’re not going to overturn it. I think that’s very, very harsh.”
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On top of the reaction from ex-players, former referee Mark Clattenburg suggesting Harrison had exaggerated his fall and the best decision would have been to let play continue.
“I do not agree that the contact by [Myles] Lewis-Skelly on [Jack] Harrison makes a penalty,” Clattenburg said. “There is a duel for the ball between the two, and as Lewis-Skelly falls, there is a small contact, but this does not make Harrison fall in this way.
“I would prefer VAR to interfere and recommend a review, but as the line of intervention is low in the Premier League, I was sure that the VAR would not change the decision.
“People will always be split on this decision, and the most important was the on-field decision of a penalty by referee [Darren] England, which I believe is soft and a penalty you would be happy to receive and angry to be against. The best decision is to play on.”
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