Man City will have to wait for at least one more matchweek before they can be officially crowned the Premier League champions but if Raheem Sterling had been awarded a penalty on Saturday, things could have turned out a bit different.
With the match finely balanced at 1-1, Raheem Sterling was shoved to the ground by Kurt Zouma inside the Chelsea box and at first glance, it looked like a penalty, even though the referee chose to decide against it.
Raheem Sterling was sure this decision would be overturned by VAR but to all the Man City players’ surprise, the penalty was not awarded. And to make matters worse, just a few minutes later, Marcos Alonso scored the match-winning goal for Chelsea.
The winger obviously did not have too many kind words for the VAR after the match.
“For me, I couldn’t get a shot off because he’s put his knee on the back of my hamstring,” Sterling told Sky Sports, as quoted by MEN. I don’t know how it’s not a penalty, I don’t know how it’s not been reviewed properly, the ref said it’s been reviewed but at the end of the day, personally, I knew it was a penalty. I thought the VAR was here to help but it wasn’t meant to be.
“He said to me that it’s been checked, it’s been cleared, it’s not a penalty but for me it was a sure penalty.”
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel admitted that luck did favour them a little bit during the match but at the same time, Sterling shouldn’t have been on the pitch.
‘I am aware you need a bit of luck in any match of football, and we had it on our side in the second half,’ the Chelsea boss replied when asked about the challenge on Raheem Sterling.
‘I only saw it live, and I was in fear he would give it. The first one [against Billy Gilmour] was a 50/50 which maybe wasn’t worth overturning by VAR, but if he hadn’t given it live it wouldn’t have been worth overruling. It was a pretty tough one to take.
‘Second one I didn’t see, but I also heard Raheem Sterling was lucky to be on the field because he had a huge foul against Timo Werner. You need these things, I am not here to talk bad about the referee, this is how it is. You need a bit of luck and this will never change.’
Raheem Sterling’s tackle on Werner was obviously not a red card offence but on the other hand, VAR has given softer decisions when it comes to that Kurt Zouma nudge on the England international.
No matter how much Tuchel tries to avoid to inevitable but the challenge looked pretty blatant and now even former EPL referee Dermot Gallagher has come out to claim that it was a clear penalty.
“I think it’s a penalty, it’s clumsy, he doesn’t play the ball,” Gallagher told Premier League Productions when asked about the incident, as quoted by Metro.
“It is a penalty in my view but I think it is so minimal contact that VAR looks at it, is it a clear obvious error? He’ll say no, leave it with the on-field [decision]. Many, many times we’ve asked for the on-field referee to make the decision.
“I think in this case it’s left to the on-field [decision]. I feel he’s got it wrong. What I would say is he’s made a genuine decision and I can’t see VAR overturning it.
“What you have to remember is he’s [the VAR official] there to say if it’s a clear and obvious error. I think not, in my view it’s a penalty, but it’s so subjective.
“A lot of people look at that and say there’s not enough contact. Only a few weeks ago we were talking about how many penalties have been given that wouldn’t have been given in previous years because the tolerance level for contact has been brought down so low.
“So I think the balance has got to be – does a referee on the field think it’s a penalty? No. Does the VAR looking at it think it’s a clear and obvious error? He thinks no, so it’s left with the on-field decision.”
