The Premier League\u2019s Key Match Incidents Panel has concluded Everton were wrongfully denied a penalty in their 1\u20130 defeat to Arsenal. The ruling follows an incident the on-pitch official Sam Barrott and VAR Michael Salisbury missed during the match, a decision that angered the home crowd and Everton manager David Moyes.<\/p>\n
Immediately after the game the Premier League Match Centre described the contact as “insufficient” to warrant a spot kick. Less than two weeks later the panel voted 3\u20132 that Barrott\u2019s choice not to award a penalty was incorrect. The panel also voted 3\u20132 that VAR Salisbury should have instructed the on-pitch official to review the incident at the monitor.<\/p>\n
Those who supported a penalty noted “Saliba carelessly kicks Barry with no contact on the ball”. Those who opposed the award argued “there was not enough impact and a delayed reaction.” The split vote underlines the fine margins at the centre of the decision.<\/p>\n
Had Barrott pointed to the spot and Everton converted from 12 yards out, Mikel Arteta\u2019s side would be level with Manchester City atop the table. Instead Arsenal, who were rightfully awarded a first-half penalty that Viktor Gy\u00f6keres buried, left with a 1\u20130 victory and the full three points.<\/p>\n
The win allowed the league leaders to top the table at Christmas Day. The club had reached the summit on that holiday on four previous occasions and failed to convert those positions into a Premier League title in each instance.<\/p>\n
By New Year\u2019s Eve Arsenal were five points clear of the Cityzens, who held a game in hand. Should Manchester City defeat Sunderland on the first day of the new year the gap would fall to two points.<\/p>\n
As the title race develops the panel\u2019s finding on the Everton incident will remain a talking point. The match-day decision at Hill Dickinson Stadium and the panel\u2019s 3\u20132 verdict may be significant if Arsenal\u2019s margin over Manchester City stays as slender as it is now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Key Match Incidents Panel ruled Everton were wrongly denied a penalty in Arsenal\u2019s 1\u20130 win. at Hill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,687,172],"tags":[1162,1215],"class_list":["post-5572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-everton","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}