The Smith-Rowe strike that gave Arsenal the lead. Correct decision?

JG3001

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It’s the correct decision, but had the referee seen De Gea down before the ball got to Smith-Rowe I reckon the whistle would have been blown irrespective. It’s only because he saw it after the strike he dithered.

Smith-Rowe also knew the keeper was down well beforehand, he was gagging to get that shot off ASAP. Poor sportsmanship but so be it, teams in dodgy form take what they can get, we,d probably have done the same. But, don’t complain when a similar incident goes against you in the future.
 

Greck

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It's not the ref's fault. It's not like he has a chip in his skull telling him who's injured outside his line of vision. He was in the box and couldn't get a wider view of everyone. Even some of us watching at home on widescreens didn't pick up on it. De Gea went down while everyone was turning their back to goal to follow the clearance. You couldn't pick a worse time as everyone is turning to look where the ball is landing. It would have taken him time to pick up on an injured player in his peripheral. Even our own players didn't know, except fred for obvious reasons. Someone would have rugby tackled that arsenal player before he could even wind up a shot.
 

LochGormanAbú

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Has to be a goal. This is when VAR works well, play to the whistle and ref is right to let him shoot even if he sees De Gea. Then VAR can clear up how De Gea is in a heap, which they did. Also the Fred pen, VAR worked well last night.
 

RedDevil@84

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It's not the ref's fault. It's not like he has a chip in his skull telling him who's injured outside his line of vision
Huh what? Atkinson turned towards De Gea, saw him on the floor and had plenty of time to whistle. He hesitated and the ball had gone in.
 

House Mkhitaryan

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The ref should blow the play dead if goalkeeper is down injured. If he doesn't see it, VAR can see that he is down and should retroactively make the call that play should have been stopped and the goal doesn't count.

If a keeper collapses like Eriksen did in the EUROs, would play just continue until the opposing team scores? Is it all good since there was no foul?
 
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cyberman

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I was thinking about this today, isn’t there instances where the ref blows up and pulls play back to something that happened before he blew? Like play advantage and such? I do think it’s a goal but I’m thinking that when he blew is irrelevant and too much is made of the whistle. It’s not as if you can smack it in from a foul throw and have it be a goal if it goes in before the ref whistles for an obvious retake?
 

Greck

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Huh what? Atkinson turned towards De Gea, saw him on the floor and had plenty of time to whistle. He hesitated and the ball had gone in.
No he didn't. You saw replays in slow motion but his seeing De gea happened in a split of a second, in fact when the ball had already been kicked. He couldn't even react in that second as he was right in the middle of jumping out of the way of a player. He didn't actually see De Gea injured till the ball was on its way to goal, this was also when he sees and blows the whistle but it's too late. Look at when he turns to our goal. Prior to that his eyes are following the play.
 
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RUCK4444

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Yeah I don't think you've ever been studded before on the ankle.
I think we’re cutting him a little too much slack here, it’s not enough to go to ground for 10 minutes.

IMO it didn’t even hurt him that much, he thought it was an opposition player and took a liberty by guessing and hoping the ref would blow.

It’s not a slide tackle or a nasty coming together or anything, just some pressure from somebody treading on your foot, like Shearer said it happens all the time in the box, you deal with the situation first and foremost, take a seat after if it’s actually hurting.
 

antohan

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So either the ref tells VAR he intended to blow if the keeper was down and it doesn’t matter if the ball has crossed the line or not, or they just allow play to continue until it hits the back of the net then let VAR sort it out
Or doesn't, which would most often be the case. I prefer completing the attacking phase and then sorting it out. The technology is there to play on, don't stop what could be a perfectly legitimate goal (as I reckon this was).
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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Technically correct BUT
1. Smith Rowe shouldn’t have played on and scored - sportsmanship says that you don’t play on and score against a prone injured keeper ever
2. The ref should have blown the whistle to stop play - is he a Gooner?
 

Abraxas

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A goal and a bit pathetic from DeGea in my opinion. I think he thought that the opposition did it and that the ref would blow.
 

antohan

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The ref should blow the play dead if goalkeeper is down injured. If he doesn't see it, VAR can see that he is down and should retroactively make the call that play should have been stopped and the goal doesn't count.

If a keeper collapses like Eriksen did in the EUROs, would play just continue until the opposing team scores? Is it all good since there was no foul?
If David was taken to hospital with a heart problem I can guarantee you that wouldn't be given as a goal. Foul is only relevant in that if it's a rival's foul there's no judgement to be exercised, anything else the ref has to make a call.
 

Tomuś

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Correct decision but doesn't make arse players celebrating as if they win the world cup any less of cringey.
 

Foxbatt

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Gotcha.
Think we're arguing about the same thing here.
Personally I don't think Atkinson was 100% with what was going on and was hoping the ball would go out. (Either Arsenal fecking up the attack or us getting possession)
He would then stop the play and see what was going on with De Gea.
Smith - Rowe had other ideas though.
No one knew what was happening apart from Fred who was screaming. I would say that VAR did more than just find out about the whistle. If that was an Arsenal player stepping on his foot, it would have been a foul on the keeper and the goal would not have stood.
 

InspiRED

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100% a goal. If De Gea was thinking he should have stayed down and got stretchered off. That would maybe have been enough. Fact he was up again a few seconds later. Can't just have an injury every time the other team is threatening, game would become a farce, especially in Europe.
 

matt23

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I think the correct decision was made. Fred was Arsenal's man of the match for the first half hour.
 

Polar

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Correct decision. A GK can’t just lay down, turn his back to the play and expect the referee to stop the play. Have to be the same rules for GK as for other players.
 

Roux

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They haven't all had the same opinion. Plenty both sides of the argument from what I've seen.
care to post a couple of them? I’m genuinely interested on their take. All I’ve seen from the pros is De Gea made a huge mistake.
 

TheReligion

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care to post a couple of them? I’m genuinely interested on their take. All I’ve seen from the pros is De Gea made a huge mistake.
Rob Green was against it on the BBC and a few others.

It definitely split opinion. Most ex keepers favoured it being stopped.
 

Hansi Fick

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If Fred broke his ankle would it still have been the correct decision?
It's not Arsenal's fault that Fred steps on De Gea's foot is it. What would you have said if the ref had given a penalty, since you seem to think it's a foul?
 

cyberman

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It's not Arsenal's fault that Fred steps on De Gea's foot is it. What would you have said if the ref had given a penalty, since you seem to think it's a foul?
You don’t have to be injured by an opponent for the ref to stop play. It doesn’t matter who stepped on David
 

Roux

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Rob Green was against it on the BBC and a few others.

It definitely split opinion. Most ex keepers favoured it being stopped.
I wouldn’t say split - just looking at the usually sites/tv and most of them were saying the right call was made and De Gea was embarrassing. Even the article I just read about Rob Green.
 

antohan

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Rob Green was against it on the BBC and a few others.

It definitely split opinion. Most ex keepers favoured it being stopped.
You would expect that. They won't be thinking about a playacting scenario but the countless times they likely tried to play on only to find they were a bit fecked, couldn't defend their goal properly, and couldn't complain about an injury after conceding. That's why the instant whistle blow was and still is a rule.

Maybe that's what David went for, not staying up and running the risk of finding his foot wasn't quite up to spring him into a save. It just didn't look that way to me at all and, all things considered and with VAR factored in, I'd rather refs called it on a case by case basis than have a blanket rule that keeper down = no goal. That could ruin football overnight in this day and age.
 

Hansi Fick

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You don’t have to be injured by an opponent for the ref to stop play. It doesn’t matter who stepped on David
Yeah but if it's not a head injury, the ref is not supposed to stop the game if it wasn't a foul, or how is the convention?
Goalkeepers are probably a case of their own, but it was still a weird one.

I think he blew the whistle only after the goal so it could stand if there hadn't been a foul (if De Gea had been fouled VAR would have taken the goal back and he probably expected that would happen anyway), and it doesn't feel injust to me that it went that way. Of course I'm a non-United fan rooting for Arsenal so..

Else that would be a rather easy way to defend corners..
 

acnumber9

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The FA rules state ‘Play is allowed to continue until the ball is out of play if a player is, in their opinion, only slightly injured’, but it also states ‘Exceptions to this ruling are made only for: Injury to a goalkeeper’.

So shouldn’t play have been stopped as soon as the goalkeeper went down injured, regardless whether it was our player or an arsenal player that caused the injury?

Atkinson should’ve noticed De Gea was down injured and stopped play immediately.
Yes it should’ve been stopped. As will almost always happen (before somebody chimes in with the rare examples from 20 years ago) when a keeper goes down injured regardless of the circumstances. Wrong decision not to blow when he say De Gea. Right decision to allow the goal once he didn’t.
 

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Clean goal. Not sure in what sort of a pain De Gea was. Should have simply just go on with it and not sprint to the ref like that after goal was allowed. Made him look like a fool. Oh well, we won, Arsenal lost. Life is good. Let's move on.
 

antohan

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Absolutely pathetic from Dave on this occasion. Don’t know what he was thinking
In fairness, my guess is he felt the stamp, assumed it had to be an oppo player and just decided he wasn't giving the fecker the benefit of him defending his goal potentially not being fully able to do so. It's a split-second decision and it turned out to be wrong because he miscalculated and hadn't factored in Fred in the equation :lol:

As an example, 30 years ago I was playing U-17 rugby and there was a pitch invasion from the rival team fans and first team players. I was hit from behind and went down like a sack of potatoes instantly. The Rugby Association reviewed footage and charged a senior player for what looked like a devastating blow. I was called up to deposition and told them it was just a brush but I had zero interest in attempting to turn around and getting another couple of blows as I did so. Oddly, everyone saw it as me embarassing myself when it was just common sense self-preservation.
 

gazbradley

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I was thinking about this today, isn’t there instances where the ref blows up and pulls play back to something that happened before he blew? Like play advantage and such? I do think it’s a goal but I’m thinking that when he blew is irrelevant and too much is made of the whistle. It’s not as if you can smack it in from a foul throw and have it be a goal if it goes in before the ref whistles for an obvious retake?
It was a bizarre situation which I think ultimately the correct decision was made but I kind of have the same line of thinking as you. It was clear after Atkinson blew, his decision was no goal and clearly gestured such to Arsenal players, he also half brought the whistle up when he saw De Gea down before delaying, no fault of Atkinsons probably just unsure of what to do in that split second which is understandable.
There’s always a delay to a ref making a decision and then blowing and though technically the ball crossed the line after the whistle, if De Gea had been seriously hurt (I don’t think he was, at least not enough to stay down as long as he did) I wouldn’t feel happy about scoring that way.
I was more hoping it would be disallowed for the way Arsenal players and Arteta danced around like they’d scored a worldie
 

cyberman

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Yeah but if it's not a head injury, the ref is not supposed to stop the game if it wasn't a foul, or how is the convention?
Goalkeepers are probably a case of their own, but it was still a weird one.

I think he blew the whistle only after the goal so it could stand if there hadn't been a foul (if De Gea had been fouled VAR would have taken the goal back and he probably expected that would happen anyway), and it doesn't feel injust to me that it went that way. Of course I'm a non-United fan rooting for Arsenal so..

Else that would be a rather easy way to defend corners..
Keepers get the benefit of the doubt 100 percent of the time when they go down. This is just being super analysed because the ref fecked it up. It wasn’t take advantage of before and it wouldn’t be taken advantage of from now on. Remember, David didn’t dive or anything here, he wasn’t feigning contact
 

antohan

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Keepers get the benefit of the doubt 100 percent of the time when they go down. This is just being super analysed because the ref fecked it up. It wasn’t take advantage of before and it wouldn’t be taken advantage of from now on. Remember, David didn’t dive or anything here, he wasn’t feigning contact
We are a bit too high profile for that to be disallowed and not evolve into a blank cheque for keepers to roll around. Opinions, huh?