Keith Hackett horrified by ‘major’ Godfrey error as Sky Sports footage emerges in Everton win v Arsenal
We’re delighted to welcome former Premier League referee Keith Hackett as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Everton...
Keith Hackett was “shocked” to see Ben Godfrey get away with an alleged stamp on Takehiro Tomiyasu’s face as Everton beat Arsenal on Monday night.
Godfrey was not punished by Mike Dean after he failed to see the incident at Goodison Park while VAR Stuart Attwell refused to make the on-field referee check it over on the pitchside monitor.
While there’s no doubt that Godfrey’s foot did land on Tomiyasu’s face, the Everton defender was looking away from the grounded Arsenal player as he placed his foot down.
Despite this, ex-Premier League referee Hackett was hit out at Attwell’s failure to get Dean to watch the incident again and has called for increased usage of the pitchside monitor.
“With referee Mike Dean in the middle and Stuart Attwell on VAR, I was shocked and disappointed that they decided that the deliberate stamp by Everton’s Ben Godfrey on Arsenals Takehiro Tomiyasu did not warrant a sanction,” Hackett told Goodison News.
“VAR intervened and this was no accident; you can see clearly the downward movement of Godfrey right foot into the vulnerable facial area of his opponent.
“VAR Stuart Attwell decided not to involve referee Mike Dean and the game continued.
“I do not understand why there is a reluctance at the PGMOL for them to allow the referee to visit the monitor. Dean should have been requested to view the incident.
“If he had done then this major error would have been avoided.
“The stamp endangered the safety of the Arsenal player who when he ran away from the incident clearly had a cut on his face.“
Sky Sports’ footage of the incident does show the contact on Tomayisu’s face and yes, the Gunners man did have a cut.
There was undeniable proof that contact was made but whether or not it was deliberate is not clear and is not obvious.
VAR is there for clear and obvious errors. Was this clearly a sending off for Godfrey? Was it obvious that he stamped on his face on purpose?
In other Everton news, Gary Neville has taken aim at the Blues on Sky Sports.
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