Howard Webb explains why Arsenal wasn’t given a penalty against Aston Villa

One of the most controversial moments in Arsenal’s 1-0 loss to Aston Villa in their last Premier League game was when Kai Havertz’s goal for the Gunners was ruled out because of a handball in the buildup.

It was a scrappy goal, but Arsenal would not have cared as they looked determined not to lose that fixture.

However, the goal was ruled out as the ball had touched Havertz’s hands before he scored.

But Matty Cash appeared to have handled the ball first during the scrap to defend his goal and Arsenal felt they should have been awarded a penalty.

It was never given and Howard Webb has defended the referee and explained, as quoted by the Daily Mail:

‘The law states that any contact with an attacker’s hand or arm, even accidental, which then leads to a goal being scored immediately has to be penalised. 

‘And this is actually a really good on-field decision by the referee, Jarred Gillett, in that respect. The law requires him to penalise when he sees that contact on Kai Havertz’s arm.

‘It’s not intentional, but it still has to be penalised. I think the idea was that if it comes off the arm, it can’t be a fair goal – that was the reason why this law came in. But we see this kind of situation leading to a goal disallowed when it hits Havertz’s arm and yet a few seconds earlier, it hits Matty Cash’s arm as well – equally accidentally – but he doesn’t get penalised.’

Just Arsenal Opinion

VAR will always make controversial decisions and we just need to work more on taking our clean chances during matches.

If we do this, we would not need help from VAR or anyone else to win games.