Sports Weekly all-media reporter in London Liu Chuan
In Arsenal's 2-1 home defeat to Manchester City, the controversial penalty city won became a turning point in the whole game. In that short period of 4 minutes, the home team not only conceded a penalty, but also suffered an empty goalless goal, as well as two consecutive yellow cards that the referee showed Gabriel in a very short period of time. Finally, under this triple blow, the gunner's previous efforts of nearly an hour were completely destroyed. On-duty referee Atwell also became the first Premier League referee to be questioned by the outside world after the game.
Xhaka was not interested in Bernardo Silva's pull-and-roll foul in the penalty area, and he made a clear gesture after the latter fell to the ground: signaling for the game to continue. However, the two players immediately quarreled in the penalty area, and VAR intervened as soon as the game entered the dead ball state, after communicating with colleagues in the video referee group through the headset for nearly 2 minutes, Atwell decided to personally go to the sideline screen to check the slow motion replay, and in the Premier League, once the controversial penalty entered this step, the referee would almost 100% change the decision later.
For the foul itself, the pulling action on Xhaka's hand was more obvious, so the point of contention was that the extent of the scramble was not so great that Bernardo Silva fell headlong into the penalty area. Arsenal's veteran Fabregas saw it as a "bad penalty" on Twitter: "This should never be awarded a penalty! Ferdinand, who works as a commentator at BT Sport, was more puzzled by referee Atwell's penalty scale: "Xhaka did have movements on his hands, but if Silva did not fall to the ground, the game would continue, the physical contact between the two did not occur in the case of high-speed confrontation, and if the rules did not punish false falls, the players would easily fall to the ground in this situation." I'm very confused about the referee's decision because you can't use two very different sets of criteria for two major penalty controversies, or at least procedurally he should go to the sidelines to look at slow motion on both occasions, just like those referees on the continent. ”
Another of the "two major penalty controversies" mentioned by Ferdinand occurred shortly after the start of the first half: when Odegaard was picking up the ball near the baseline, Goalkeeper Edson struck and shoveled it to the ground. VAR also intervened, but it didn't work out, and it was a foul that looked more convincing than Bernardo Silva and Xhaka. So Ferdinand felt that Atwell's decision scale without any coherence was impossible to interpret: "I can't understand the scale that he and VAR applied to these two decisions, so I can't tell you why he didn't award Arsenal that penalty, because the foul looked so obvious and clear. ”
Compared with Ferdinand, Manchester City star Lescott believes that there is no doubt about the penalty in the second half, but he also believes that the penalty that shoveled Down Odegao in the first half of the Edson penalty area was missed: "I think Manchester City's penalty should be justified, but Arsenal should also get a penalty in the first half. Somewhat excessively, the referee refused to enforce the same set of standards even procedurally, and his lack of coherence in scale led to a great game that was somewhat out of control in the final 30 minutes. ”
In addition to the two very different penalty decisions, the referee also showed Gabriel two consecutive yellow cards in less than 3 minutes. The second yellow card for the Brazilian centre-back was due to a foul on a Manchester City player on the back defence, while arsenal did not receive a definitive answer to the first yellow card until after the match. Stuvenberg, who is the acting manager, asked gabriel's condition in confusion: "Do you know what he got his first yellow card for?" The Gunners vice-manager said he only saw Gabriel verbally communicating with the referee near the penalty spot and then received a yellow card, while Gabriel said he did not make any outrageous remarks at the time. However, the media speculated that this was related to his suspected trampling on the turf on the penalty spot.
The England media did not discuss it after the game, but one scene amplified on social media was Martinelli's shot that hit the upright. Fans found that just a second before the ball was about to bounce off Martinelli's feet, referee Atwell suddenly entered the Manchester City penalty area at sprint speed and squeezed in front of the Brazilian striker, blocking the home team's shooting route to some extent. Some fans quipped: "He may just be a little out of control, but if you repeatedly watch Atwell's performance in this moment in multi-angle slow motion, you will only grow more and more suspicious that he is wearing the wrong clothes on the field today." ”
Source: Sports + Original