There was one other penalty that was debatable earlier in the season. Can't remember which one or which competition it was in, but I've remembered it because I've been telling people that we've only had one debatable penalty all season (two now obviously). All the other penalties have been fairly obviously correct.
Probably the one on James v Norwich which was let go by the referee but given by VAR. It didn't really pass my "clear and obvious" eye test, but it came the weekend right after a series of calls that were not overturned, and public outcry over the VAR threshold, and where they seemed to lower the bar to overturn calls for a few weeks (in multiple games). I'd say that's one that shouldn't have been overturned whichever way the ref called it, so that probably shouldn't have been given by VAR.
- VAR helps.
- Addition of James especially and Bruno. Those two are direct into the box types. Also Greenwood.
- Martial at CF, he is a more skillful and tricky player good at nick-neat interlink passes = better chance to get pens.
- McTominator making more runnings into box. McT have "malicia" football skill.
Couple those with what we already have, eg. Rash at LW, Pogba attacking, etc.
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MEN also gave their opinion here --> (
link)
I think that VAR overturning a few obvious mistakes shows what we've been thinking for a few years, illustrated by this thread's existence, ie that refs find it easy to deny us calls because there's little outcry from media and our managers and players have been too nice for a number of years. Just look at the Bruno penalty against Villa where that penalty almost launched a national crisis versus Wolves penalty which is also a failed roulette spin that leads to contact where everyone's in agreement that it's clumsy and a nailed on pen. The only difference is where the attacker's foot ends up, but otherwise very similar.
I generally agree with the MENs assessment, but I'd call the Norwich one a soft overturn as I think the ref's call on the pitch (whichever way he'd blown) should've stood as it could've gone either way and was not clear and obvious in any direction, but as I mentioned above, it came during a period where public outcry seemed to lower the bar for VAR interventions.
It would've been interesting to see how many more we could've had in situations where the ref hasn't given anything and VAR has not intervened. I bet there are quite a few penalties and other decisions there that could've been given, not least the Martial penalty v Palace and Gary Cahill not being red carded for an obvious denial of obvious goalscoring opportunity.