Former Chelsea defender John Terry has criticised the decision to award the Blues a penalty against Arsenal in last night’s match.
The penalty was awarded after William Saliba was penalised for a handball, despite the fact that he had jumped for a header and the ball deflected off his hand.
VAR stepped in and awarded the penalty, and Cole Palmer converted it to open the scoring for Chelsea.
This decision adds to the list of contentious calls made by match officials and is likely to be a topic of discussion in the coming days.
Saliba had very little control over the situation, and it’s difficult to imagine how he could have avoided the ball striking his hand while going for the header.
Terry expressed his surprise at the penalty decision and stated that he would have protested if it had happened during his playing days.
The former Chelsea captain tweeted:
“Delighted we got the Penalty but I don’t agree with the rules on this, very harsh on defenders.
“I would have been fuming if that was given against me back in the day. But happy now.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
It was disappointing that Chelsea was given a penalty for that incident, and it will be interesting to hear the explanation in the coming days.
However, it is what it is and we just have to live with it.
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The big problem is, the rules are made by a body that is not made up of footballers. Referees are more involved in law changing/setting and not professional footballers. It was given because it met the “criteria” of handball. Truth is, if that was handball, then it is ruining the game as we knew it. There is no argument that it hit his hand but it wasn’t intentional, it wasn’t on target, Saliba could not pull his hand away, even if he had wanted to, so it wasnt avoidable. Salibas arms were in a strange position but that is how he jumps. By the rules now, it was “probably” handball but the rules are sh!+.
If the truth be told, the officials are just lacking basic common sense.
Once herd Frank Lampard complained that his three year old daughter at home would get one right.
Things haven’t kick on since
Apparently, they are trying to take common sense out of decision making. Probably because they know the refs have none.
In England we have very poor football referees. They are paid a lot of money for dross!!!!!!!
The thing is how do you make a decent jump with your tucked-in body? This was just daylight robbery from the match’s official. At some point, they need to demonstrate how they get to these ridiculous decisions.
Arsenal have been at the receiving end of several dodgy refereeing decisions this season already and you begin to wander what’s really going on
It’s, really harsh decision. EPL referees are slowly ruining the league, the rule needs to be corrected