“He can’t be penalised” – Howard Webb explains why Aston Villa man avoided punishment vs Arsenal

“He can’t be penalised” – Howard Webb explains why Aston Villa man avoided punishment vs Arsenal

Howard Webb explains why VAR ruled out Arsenal goal vs Aston Villa
BY

HAL FISH
PUBLISHED 29 MINUTES AGO
Kai Havertz looked to have scored but it was ruled out after the ball hit his hand, as well as Matty Cash’s, during the build up…

VAR ruled out Kai Havertz’s goal against Aston Villa due to the ball hitting his hand, as per the rules.

Matty Cash’s hand contact was not penalized because he did not commit an offense as a defender.
If Eddie Nketiah had scored instead of Havertz, the goal would have stood due to the specific accidental handball rule for the goalscorer.

 

Howard Webb, chief refereeing officer of the PMGOL, has revealed why VAR ruled out Kai Havertz’s late goal against Aston Villa. The ball appeared to hit Matty Cash on the hand first before also being handled by the Arsenal midfielder.

It was a frustrating outing for the Gunners as they fell to just their second Premier League defeat of the season, dropping from first to second in the table as Liverpool took all three points in a narrow win over Crystal Palace. The win also leaves Unai Emery and co just one place and one point behind Arsenal in third.

The Villans got off to a fine start with John McGinn netting after just seven minutes. From here on in, though, the Gunners took control of the game but couldn’t manage to find an equaliser despite generating 1.40 expected goals compared to Villa’s 0.57.

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For a moment, it did look as though Mikel Arteta’s men had grabbed a late equaliser when Havertz bundled home the ball from close range, but referee Jarred Gillet immediately ruled the goal out having spotted a handball. Upon the VAR review, it became apparent that, while the ball had hit the German’s hand, it had also his Villa defender Cash on the arm as well.

VAR stuck with the onfield decision, ruling out the goal, and so Aston Villa picked up all three points. There has been some fall-out since, with Arsenal fans questioning why only their player was punished despite both footballers using their hands inside the penalty box.

Why VAR ruled out Havertz’s goal vs Aston Villa
Sky Sports Premier League have since released footage which reveals audio and footage of the process made by the VAR team live during the incident. On top of that, former referee Webb has explained why the officials came to the right conclusion. He first explained why Havertz was penalised:

“The law states that any contact with an attacker’s hand or arm, even accidental, which then leads to a goal being scored immediately has to be penalised. And this is actually a really good on-field decision by the referee, Jarred Gillett, in that respect. The law requires him to penalise when he sees that contact on Kai Havertz’s arm.

“It’s not intentional, but it still has to be penalised. I think the idea was that if it comes off the arm, it can’t be a fair goal – that was the reason why this law came in. But we see this kind of situation leading to a goal disallowed when it hits Havertz’s arm and yet a few seconds earlier, it hits Matty Cash’s arm as well – equally accidentally – but he doesn’t get penalised.”