Copyright Yardbarker
Howard Webb has explained why John Stones’ goal in Manchester City’s win over Wolves last season was given, whereas Virgil van Dijk’s at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday was disallowed. There were strong similarities to both incidents – from a corner kick, a player for the attacking team was in an offside position and standing near the goalkeeper, and the ball duly entered the net but the assistant referee raised his flag. However, whereas VAR overturned the on-field decision at Molineux 13 months ago, that wasn’t the case in the Liverpool game at the weekend, and our equaliser was chalked off. Webb explains why Stones’ goal was allowed to stand Webb appeared on the Premier League Match Officials Mic’d Up show on Tuesday night as the VAR audio from the disallowed Van Dijk goal was made public, and Michael Owen asked him why the two seemingly identical incidents yielded different outcomes. The PGMOL chief replied, with reference to Stones’ goal in October 2024 (via Sky Sports): “I think that there’s a clear difference here in that the ball goes directly over [Jose] Sa’s head and doesn’t go over [Bernardo] Silva. “He is in an offside position when John Stones heads the ball forward. Importantly, he moves to the left away from the flight of the ball. The ball goes straight over Sa; it doesn’t go over the head of Bernardo Silva in the way that it went over the head of [Andy] Robertson, who ducked below it. “I think it’s difficult to see this and think in any way that Sa is impacted by the action of Silva. If the ball had gone over Silva’s head, maybe causing Sa to hesitate in case it hits Silva, then we’d come out with the same outcome of check complete on the on-field decision of disallowed goal.” Utter nonsense from Webb What on earth is Webb talking about when he claims that Sa wasn’t impacted by Silva? As the corner kick was taken in that game at Molineux, the Man City player actually took a step to his left and nudged the Wolves goalkeeper before stepping away once Stones made the header. If that’s not interfering with an opponent, then what is? There was definitely more interference with the ‘keeper in that incident than there was from Robertson on Gianluigi Donnarumma on Sunday, but it was only the latter goal that was disallowed. If anything, Webb has only compounded the fury of Liverpool fans after what happened at the Etihad with his mind-boggling explanations regarding those two incidents. He certainly hasn’t helped to placate Merseyside anger following the weekend’s controversy. Once again, football supporters in this country are left scratching their heads over how our supposedly top officials come to decisions like these and stand over them afterwards, with no real appetite to improve refereeing standards in the Premier League even though it’s badly needed. You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
