The Premier League’s Key Match Incident Panel have unanimously agreed that Arsenal should have been awarded a penalty against Aston Villa, and that Ian Maatsen should have been sent off.
The Premier League’s Key Match Incident Panel have reviewed Arsenal’s match against Aston Villa and unanimously concluded that the Gunners should have had a penalty for a late foul on Bruno Guimaraes.
All five members of the panel agreed that a penalty should have been awarded on-field for Ian Maatsen’s challenge on Guimaraes. They pointed out that there was clear contact on the Arsenal man’s standing leg, and no contact with the ball.
The panel also unanimously agreed that VAR should have intervened to correct the mistake, as they viewed it as a clear and obvious error.
Going one further, the panel also felt the challenge was reckless, and therefore a second yellow card should have been shown to Maatsen. The Villa defender had already been booked prior to the incident, so he should have been sent off.
This would have been possible if the VAR had recommended an on-field review, as the referee would have been able to check the penalty decision and then award a second yellow.
VAR can’t recommend second yellow cards on their own, but it is possible to recommend a review of a penalty that then separately leads to a yellow card being shown.
The obvious upside to all this for Arsenal is that the Gunners won the match anyway.
The penalty award would have given the team’s goal difference a boost and taken the pressure off for the final moments of the match, but it almost certainly wouldn’t have changed the result.
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