Officially Speaking – with Keith Hackett
REVIEW OF PREMIER LEAGUE 7th – 8th December 2019
Keith Hackett
Saturday 7 December Everton 3-1 Chelsea
Referee: Craig Pawson
Assistants: Lee Betts, Richard West
Fourth official: Darren England
VAR: Stuart Attwell
Assistant VAR: Stephen Child
| NUMBER OF PREMIER LEAGUE APPOINTMENTS | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 8 | 32 | 1 |
The main talking point was the impact that the interim manager Duncan Ferguson had made with the home team. His change to a 4-4-2 system clearly worked.
I have to give full credit to the referee for allowing the game to flow. VAR was redundant as it was not required to intervene. This referee would improve his performances on the field of play if he improved his dynamic sprinting. This would require him to average 12,000 metres per game and within that total a minimum of 1000 metres at speeds of 7 metres per second. I would recommend him working with a sprint coach
Saturday 7 December Bournemouth 0-3 Liverpool
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Assistants: Sian Massey-Ellis, Simon Long
Fourth official: James Limington
VAR: Jonathan Moss
Assistant VAR: Scott Ledger
| NUMBER OF PREMIER LEAGUE APPOINTMENTS | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 12 | 40 | 0 |
We needed to see more pace in Kavanagh’s performance than his last game. Sadly, an early injury to a Bournemouth player appeared to negatively affect the concentration levels of the Bournemouth players and Liverpool took advantage and scored. Salah and Keita then combined to score Liverpool’s second goal.
Referee Kavanagh had a good afternoon in what turned out to be a rather one-sided game. Manager Eddie Howe needs to stop the rot and I guess he will be looking at the January window to strengthen his depleted group of players, many who are injured. The highlight for me was to see Kavanagh improve his sprinting speed in this game. He must continue to work on this away from games.
Saturday 7 December Tottenham Hotspur 5-0 Burnley
Referee: Kevin Friend
Assistants: Adrian Holmes, Mark Scholes
Fourth official: Robert Jones
VAR: Lee Mason
Assistant VAR: Dan Robathan
| NUMBER OF PREMIER LEAGUE APPOINTMENTS | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 11 | 36 | 3 |
We witnessed a very special goal by Son Heung-Min in this game, running from his own half and rounding defenders to score.
Spurs fourth goal demonstrated how an alert and confident referee applying a very good advantage can impact positively on the flow of the game.
All of the Match Officials can be happy with their contribution to the game. There was some good movement and sprints demonstrated by Referee Kevin Friend.
Saturday 7 December Watford 0-0 Crystal Palace
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Daniel Cook
Fourth official: Peter Bankes
VAR: Andre Marriner
Assistant VAR: Ian Hussin
| NUMBER OF PREMIER LEAGUE APPOINTMENTS | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 14 | 41 | 2 |
It’s match-week 16 and Martin Atkinson certainly is the one with most appearances season with 14 games so far to date.
Watford who have been on the end of some poor VAR reviews had their new manager Nigel Pearson sitting in the stand.
There was not a shot on goal in the first half by either team, the main talking point in this game was a caution for a foul on Zaha that the referee judged to be an act of simulation. In my opinion, Atkinson got this decision wrong.
Saturday 7 December Manchester City 1-2 Manchester United
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn
Fourth official: Mike Dean
VAR: Michael Oliver
Assistant VAR: Marc Perry
| NUMBER OF PREMIER LEAGUE APPOINTMENTS | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 14 | 68 | 2 |
This was a very good performance by both Referee Anthony Taylor and VAR Michael Oliver. The first intervention by VAR was to correctly award a penalty-kick to the home team.
Later on, Manchester City were upset that VAR turned down appeals for a penalty-kick after claims that United’s Fred had handled. Once again VAR by deciding to say NO OFFENCE.
I support and give reasons why the match officials were correct to turn the appeals down:
Law 12 (part)
Except for the above offences, it is not usually an offence if the ball touches a player’s hand/arm:
* When a player falls and the hand/arm is between the body and the ground to support the body, but not extended laterally or vertically away from the body
One final positive point was an excellent advantage applied by the referee that resulted in Rashford clattering the crossbar.
Sadly, the main talking point at the end of the game was about an object that was thrown and struck an away team player. The police will find the culprit and a lifetime ban is awaiting him. In the same part of the stand a supporter was filmed blatantly abusing Manchester United players.
Sunday 8 December Aston Villa 1 – 4 Leicester City
Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistants: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett
Fourth official: Paul Tierney
VAR: Chris Kavanagh
Assistant VAR: Daniel Coote
| NUMBER OF PREMIER LEAGUE APPOINTMENTS | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 12 | 40 | 0 |
I regularly make reference to viewing angles and there is no doubt in my mind that had Referee Oliver witnessed the challenge in the same way as I did on television replays, then Aston Villa’s Matt Targett would have received a red card for his excessive force challenge that endangered the safety of an opponent.
A blatant act of simulation by Villa’s Grealish later on in the game, in an effort to win a penalty kick, should have resulted in a sanction of a yellow card. If referees are not going to issue sanctions for this type of offence then these acts will escalate.
We witnessed once again the striking power of Jamie Vardy with a brace of goals and pleas for him to think again about playing for England.
Premier League Top Scorers in 2019-20
| VARDY | 16 |
| ABRAHAM | 11 |
| RASHFORD | 10 |
| AUBAMEYANG | 10 |
| MANE | 9 |
Sunday 8 December Newcastle United 2 – 1 Southampton
Referee: David Coote
Assistants: Harry Lennard, Peter Kirkup
Fourth official: Jarred Gillett
VAR: Martin Atkinson
Assistant VAR: Darren Cann
| NUMBER OF PREMIER LEAGUE APPOINTMENTS | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 5 | 18 | 1 |
Referee Coote is continuing to make progress and deserves a run of games to build confidence and experience. Southampton took the lead through Danny Ings. With thirty minutes to go Andy Carroll came on for Newcastle. Shelvey scored following a terrific cross by Carroll and then Newcastle scored the winner late into the game. It was a good performance from Referee Coote.
Sunday 8 December Norwich City 1 – 2 Sheffield United
Referee: Simon Hooper
Assistants: Neil Davies, Eddie Smart
Fourth official: Ollie Yates
VAR: Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: Stephen Child
| NUMBER OF PREMIER LEAGUE APPOINTMENTS | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 3 | 10 | 1 |
Referee Hooper is still establishing himself in the Premier League and is used very sparingly by the PGMOL.
Norwich City took the lead after some sloppy defending from Sheffield United. United levelled early in the second half.
VAR came into play after the referee had shown a red card to United’s Chris Basham. The VAR correctly overturned the red card, advising the referee to issue a yellow for what was a reckless challenge. This was the first time that this has happened in the Premier League.
If referee Hooper is wanting more appointments then he needs to get fitter and increase his work rate. Well done to Peter Bankes, who was the VAR in this game.
Sunday 8 December Brighton & Hove Albion 2 – 2 Wolves
Referee: Jonathan Moss
Assistants: Marc Perry, Scott Ledger
Fourth official: Tim Robinson
VAR: Graham Scott
Assistant VAR: Andy Garratt
| NUMBER OF PREMIER LEAGUE APPOINTMENTS | NUMBER OF YELLOW CARDS | NUMBER OF RED CARDS |
| 11 | 40 | 2 |
Jon Moss will be happy with his performance, he maintained good contact with play and allowed players the opportunity to shine. On this occasion it was player’s errors that impacted on the result of the game.
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