Arsenal sent clear new penalty verdict in call for law change

Arsenal were denied a penalty against Hull after the officials incorrectly applied the laws of the game.

That is the view of former referee Dermot Gallagher, who said of the incident: “ethically it is right but by the laws it is wrong”.

Referee Farai Hallam stopped play to go to the monitor and assess whether Nobel Mendy’s pull of Kai Havertz’s shirt in the box was a foul.

It was decided that while Havertz was fouled and the contact was worthy of a penalty, the Arsenal striker was offside and so a free-kick was given to Hull.

No penalty: Arsenal’s Kai Havertz falls under the challenge of Nobel Mendy against Hull

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Gallagher believes that Arsenal should have been awarded a spot-kick, but expressed sympathy for the officials involved.

He claimed that “common sense” would suggest that Havertz was offside and so a penalty could not be awarded, as he called for the rules to be tweaked to avoid such confusion.

“The law says that if a player in an offside position is fouled before the offside occurs, a foul should be given and therefore a penalty,” Gallagher said on Sky Sports.

“In law, you should give a penalty. It is quite clear, the foul occurred before. But we talk about common sense. Havertz is 100 per cent offside. His starting position is offside.

“Three things he can’t do: he can’t play the ball as he’d be interfering, he can’t challenge an opponent and he can’t go in front of the goalkeeper. He is offside and the net result should be a penalty.

“Common sense is not allowed. When you think of it morally, can you really give a penalty for a player who is never in an onside position? He can’t play the ball.

“The process of VAR was fantastic. The assistant calls offside the minute the ball comes in. The start position for the assistant was always offside.

“Ethically it is right but by law it is wrong. There is scope for tightening it up [the laws].”