Chelsea have missed so many great chances today, and wasted a lot of promising attacks.
But it’s not been entirely self inflicted. The referee has just denied a penalty for a handball from Jack Grealish.
Cole Palmer’s free kick quite clearly struck the England international’s outstretched arm as he defended in the wall. All of the Blues on the pitch appealed for it, and Michael Oliver paused for a moment – but VAR cleared it.
Yes it’s true that Grealish’s arm was coming back in towards his body – but it was starting wide out from his silhouette and it did materially affect the flight of the ball, which was heading towards goal, and even after the touch off his arm only just flitted past the post.
We’re not going to go too mad, given we’ve been our own worst enemies here, but it’s frustrating nonetheless.
You can see the incident in the clip embedded here:
the more I watch it the more infuriating it gets. this isn’t an ‘officiating error’ they saw what we saw and chose to disregard. simple as. pic.twitter.com/sZICINngQc
— amadí (@amadoit__) April 20, 2024
Chelsea Men 🤝 Chelsea Women
Being denied stone cold penaltiesThere is a campaign against Chelsea 💯
— Ishan Shah (@ishan04shah) April 20, 2024
[Footage from Bein Sport]
Horrendous officiating. The law is quite clear. If the arm extends outside the natural silhouette of the body it’s a handball. Full stop. It has nothing to do with intent.
The ball clearly strikes the hand of the defender and the penalty was not given. Okay I get that (maybe because I don’t properly understand the new handball rules that seem to change every week) but how was a corner not awarded? The ref immediately awarded a goal kick. No comment on that just focusing on whether it was a pen or not. Maybe the ref was so blinded or embarrassed that he forgot that the ball actually hit the defender before going out of play. No one mentioned this during the game!! Standards of refereeing and lack of consistency are ruining the game. It is very frustrating for a lifelong fan.