From three Premier League games on Thursday, three penalty decisions stole the limelight. Unfortunately, they aren’t making headlines for any positive reasons, instead, the Premier League has admitted today that all three penalty decisions were incorrectly given, even after being looked at by VAR.
The first incident, involving Spurs’ Harry Kane and Bournemouth’s Joshua King, where the Cherrie’s forward evidently appeared to push the Tottenham striker in the back whilst defending a cross, was waved away by referee Paul Tierney and assistant referee Michael Oliver chose not to intervene.
The second decision took place in top four targeting Manchester United’s game against relegation battling Aston Villa. Bruno Fernandez pirouetted on the edge of the Aston Villa penalty area with a deft back pass and appeared to be taken down by on onrushing Ezri Konsa. Jon Moss instantly pointed to the post, but replays clearly showed the defender pull out of his tackle and it was in fact the Portuguese attacker’s foot that came down on top of the defenders leg. Even after being looked at by VAR, they chose not to overrule the decision.
The final decision came as Everton hosted Southampton at Goodison Park. Saint midfielder Ward-Prowse appeared to fall into the standing Andre Gomes inside the penalty box but was awarded the penalty nonetheless by the referee.
Fortunately for Everton, Southampton missed the penalty with Ward-Prowse hitting the crossbar in a resulting karma for a dubious coming together with the Everton midfielder.
The Premier League came forward on Friday to admit that all three decisions were incorrectly given and should have been overturned by VAR. The decision to overrule the referees could have lead to important points for a number of teams, including a Spurs and Manchester United team chasing European places.