Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett has responded to PGMOL chief Howard Webb following his comments on the big incident in Arsenal’s win over Manchester City.
Webb claimed that Michael Oliver didn’t want to have a negative impact on the game by “overreacting” during Arsenal’s 1-0 victory at the weekend.
The defeat for Pep Guardiola’s side was overshadowed by the decision not to send off midfielder Mateo Kovacic for a rash tackle on Martin Odegaard. Minutes later, the Croatian lunged in on another Arsenal midfielder, Declan Rice, but escaped punishment in the form of a second yellow card.
Speaking on the Mic’d Up Show with Michael Owen last night, Webb argued: “We want to be as consistent as we can be throughout every game among our group.
(We’re) dealing with the same situations each week but all situations vary slightly, we understand this, this is clearly a poor tackle (from Kovacic) and I’m confident if a red card had been given by Michael Oliver on the day it would’ve been a very straight forward ‘check complete’.
“But he issued a yellow card. I think there’s a few differences (between this and Malo Gusto’s red card for Chelsea versus Aston Villa), Kovacic comes into the tackle, there’s weight on the left leg as he lunges in. The right heel hits the ground and the contact is on the side with an upright foot opposed to a sidefoot (tackle) that we seen from Gusto. A few small differences that lead the VAR to feel that the onfield decision here of yellow card wasn’t clearly and obviously incorrect. Therefore ‘check completing it’ would’ve been a re-refereeing by the official on the field.
“(Was he fortunate to stay on after the yellow) I think so. Second yellows (cards) are not something the VAR is able to get involved in but he was an extremely fortunate player to stay on the field of play.
“Our referee is one of the best referees in the world, he will view that, he doesn’t want to have a negative impact on the game by overreacting to something. Players will sometimes be on a yellow card and there will be pressure.
“It’s true if you underreact, you have a negative impact on the game. When he reflects on it, he will realise the second one is a yellow card which would’ve seen Kovacic sent off for two yellow cards having been on the benefit of this decision which was borderline.”
Liverpool fans spotted inconsistency with the revelation from the Professional Game Match Officials Limited Chief Refereeing Officer. Diogo Jota was shown a red card against Tottenham Hotspur after two bookable offences within minutes of each other for fouls on Destiny Udogie.
In a further development, according to the Premier League’s Independent Key Match Incidents Panel, Jota should not have been sent off during Liverpool’s controversial 2-1 defeat.
The five members of the panel found that the decision from Simon Hooper was incorrect, which reduced the Reds to nine men.
Former top-flight referee, Hackett, called for consistency dismissing Webb’s “overreacting” suggestion to a red card. Posting on social media, he said: “Having stated that the first challenge was a red. The first in Oliver’s game was a straight red.
“Say it and we might get some consistency out of this group of referees. A red would not be overreacting. A red would have been the correct application of law.”
