Officially Speaking – with Keith Hackett

REVIEW OF WEEK 4 REFEREE INCIDENTS

SATURDAY 3RD OCTOBER 2020

The first three weeks certainly created a great deal of debate about the high number of controversial handball decisions.
After numerous protests by stakeholders in the game and the media, the Premier League reported in the newspapers that referees will soften their approach.
I do hope that changed emphasis is made clear to referees, because it leaves me somewhat confused. Are we still going to penalise the Dier handball?

CHELSEA V CRYSTAL PALACE RESULT 4-0
Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistants: Stuart Burt, Simon Bennett
Fourth official: Darren England
VAR: Andre Marriner
Assistant VAR: Stephen Child

Michael Oliver is our top referee. In this game he was focused and always in particularly good position when making his decisions. He achieves this through a high standard of fitness and positive game reading.

Chelsea opened the scoring through Chilwell who rifled the ball into the back of the net after Palace allowed him too much space and failed to close him down. There were no complaints from the players after Oliver calmly pointed to the penalty mark on two occasions.

Chelsea were comfortable winners.

EVERTON V BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION RESULT 4-2
Referee: Simon Hooper
Assistants: Derek Eaton, Scott Ledger
Fourth official: Jonathan Moss
VAR: Kevin Friend
Assistant VAR: Simon Beck

Referee Simon Hooper was having a rare outing in the middle and despite my fears that this referee lacks an explosive sprint, he delivered a competitive game without controversy.

Everton’s Calvert Lewin was on the scoresheet yet again, getting his season off to a great start with this being his ninth goal so far this season.
England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford once again spilled the ball out of his hands and Brighton took advantage of the error. This is not the first time that this goalkeeper has demonstrated his vulnerability, which appears to be down to a lack of concentration.

Everton quickly responded by scoring and then added a third goal before halftime. There was plenty of open play in the second half with the result ending at 4-2 and Everton going to the top of the league.

LEEDS UNITED V MANCHESTER CITY RESULT 1-1
Referee: Mike Dean
Assistants: Ian Hussin, Darren Cann
Fourth official: Anthony Taylor
VAR: Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: Dan Robathan

Leeds United are a breath of fresh air after their promotion from the Championship last season; playing an attacking style of football at a high pace and were a good match against Manchester City.

In one challenge in the game a late lunge from behind received a yellow card rather than what many thought should have been a red.

A 1-1 draw was a good result for a game that was certainly exciting. The players deserve great credit for producing a very entertaining game.

I must report that during this game Stuart Dallas delivered a reckless challenge with excessive force on City’s Silva and was incredibly lucky to receive a yellow on an offence that should have been red. This decision was unusual for Dean.

NEWCASTLE UNITED V BURNLEY RESULT 3-1
Referee: David Coote
Assistants: Lee Betts, Nick Hopton
Fourth official: Martin Atkinson
VAR: Paul Tierney
Assistant VAR: Mark Scholes

Burnley are struggling this season as they try to operate with a small squad and also have several players unavailable for selection due to injury.

The home team opened the scoring through Ashley Barnes, but it was ruled out for a correctly awarded offside.
Burnley equalised with a Westwood strike. I’m delighted to say that Referee Coote was producing a solid performance, moving around the pitch with ease and achieving some good viewing positions.

Newcastle United looked the better side and took the lead through Callum Wilson.
The score finished 3-1 to the home team after the correct award of a penalty kick. David Coote produced another good performance and establishing his position in the top flight of Premier League referees.

SUNDAY 4TH OCTOBER

LEICESTER CITY V WEST HAM UNITED RESULT 0 -3
Referee: Andy Madley
Assistants: Eddie Smart, Adrian Holmes
Fourth official: Simon Hooper
VAR: Graham Scott
Assistant VAR: Marc Perry

Leicester City started the game top of the Premier League. However it was West Ham that opened the scoring.
The visitors added a second before Leicester City had the ball in the net but the goal was correctly ruled out for offside.
It was a good performance all round from referee Andy Madley.

SOUTHAMPTON V WEST BROMWICH ALBION RESULT 2-0
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Assistants: Daniel Cook, Dan Robathan
Fourth official: Kevin Friend
VAR: Paul Tierney
Assistant VAR: Neil Davies

Southampton opened the scoring through a crowd of West Brom defenders. Romeo then added Southampton’s second with a thunderbolt shot.
Referee Kavanagh gave a solid performance.

ARSENAL V SHEFFIELD UNITED RESULT 2-1
Referee: Lee Mason
Assistants: Mark Scholes, Timothy Wood
Fourth official: Robert Jones
VAR: Andre Marriner
Assistant VAR: Peter Kirkup

Arsenal’s Luiz was guilty of a shirt pull and was rather fortunate that there was doubt that the United forward would have gained possession and controlled the ball. This doubt left the referee deciding not to produce a red card.
A steady performance by referee Mason.

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS V FULHAM RESULT 1-0
Referee: Darren England
Assistants: Simon Long, James Mainwaring
Fourth official: Mike Dean
VAR: Peter Bankes
Assistant VAR: Neil Davies

This was Darren England’s first Premier League referee appointment. Having achieved international status as an Assistant Referee, he made a career choice and dropped down to commence refereeing in the Football League. Impressive performances saw him become an SG2 Referee in the Championship.

MANCHESTER UNITED V TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR RESULT 1-6
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Assistants: Gary Beswick, Adam Nunn
Fourth official: Craig Pawson
VAR: Stuart Attwell
Assistant VAR: Stephen Child

I would at times like Anthony Taylor to be more stringent and pro-active when managing players. The incident involving Anthony Martial for example, could have been resolved in a different manner.
There will be no defence for Martial but when you review the incident, he reacted to an arm in the face from the Spurs player and then stupidly used his hand in the face of his opponent who went to ground has though he had been shot.
I would have liked Taylor to have taken a look at the monitor, He may then have returned and diffused the incident by taking the two players to one side and giving them a telling off and sanctioned them with two yellows.

There was for me a more serious incident in the game when Luke Shaw was guilty of committing an excessive force challenge that endangered the safety of an opponent. In my opinion HE should have been sent off.

ASTON VILLA V LIVERPOOL RESULT  7-2
Referee: Martin Atkinson
Assistants: Constantine Hatzidakis, Richard West
Fourth official: David Coote
VAR: Jonathan Moss
Assistant VAR: Stephen Child

This was another remarkable score line with new kid on the block Aston Villa’s Anthony Watkins scoring a hat trick inside 45 minutes.

Villa opened the scoring following a mistake by the Liverpool goalkeeper who for some reason, passed the ball across his penalty area giving Villa an easy chance to score.
Liverpool then had a strong claim for a penalty after Villa’s number 7 pushed is opponent off the ball. Nothing was given by both the referee and VAR.

Wakins added a second before Salah scored Liverpool’s opening goal. This was followed quickly with another Villa goal which was deflected off Van Dijk.
Villa scored a fourth from a free kick, Watkins’ hat trick goal after 39 minutes of play.

Salah scored Liverpool’s second on the hour mark and then Villa responded with another deflected goal. Two goals from Jack Grealish made the final score 7-2, an easy win for Villa over the Champions.

Referee Atkinson maintained a low profile throughout the game.

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