Ex-PL ref asked why Arsenal got penalty vs Tottenham while Man United didn't | OneFootball

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Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher shared his thoughts on Arsenal's penalty against Tottenham Hotspur in the North London derby on Sunday and revealed that he thought it was the right call. The penalty raised plenty of controversy, with just as many thinking it was the correct call as those who thought it wasn't. After the ball struck the arm of Cristian Romero from close range as he was going to ground in the area, VAR deemed it was a handball and Bukayo Saka scored from the resulting spot-kick.

The likes of Jermaine Jenas have spoken out angrily about the call online, but Gallagher admitted he thought awarding the penalty was the correct decision. Speaking on the matter, he said that he thought Romero's arm was out, and that VAR had seen it was heading towards goal, so he wasn't surprised about the call. That's fair enough. You're hardly wrong if you think the handball was in fact a penalty as it's clearly up still up for debate, but considering he was adamant that a very similar handball during Spurs' match against Manchester United, wasn't a penalty, well, that's where things get confusing.

The past decision against United was brought up and how they weren't given a penalty for a very similar incident, when asked about that, Gallagher gave a very weak response and refused to even mention the incident. Talking strictly on the Arsenal penalty, he managed to avoid commenting on the one that wasn't awarded to the Red Devils just weeks ago and the response has done nothing more than just tick off fans of the Old Trafford side even more.

The issue is, shortly after United weren't awarded a penalty for a similar situation, he spoke out and claimed it was the right call. Switching up now and agreeing with the officials again just stinks of nothing more than refusing to criticise referees openly and refusing to ever take sides against them.

What did Dermot Gallagher say about the United handball in comparison to the Arsenal one?

Similarly to the game at Arsenal, the ball unfortunately struck the arm of Romero inside the area, this time with it trailing behind him as he dove in to block it. This time, though, a penalty wasn't awarded and Gallagher seemed to think that was the right call.

When asked whether officials would issue an apology to United for the missed call, Gallagher said: "I would say, 100% no because the feeling is that he [Romero] was so close."

It's interesting then, that he seems to care little about how close the player is weeks later as Romero was arguably closer to the Arsenal player this time around than he was against United, so it makes very little sense to view this as a penalty if you don't think the first one was. All anyone really wants at the top of football is consistency from officials, but it seems things are just as confusing as ever and no one really seems to be on the same page.