Dermot Gallagher drops verdict on Jordan Pickford incident in Everton loss v Manchester City, Sky Sports pundit disagrees
Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher believes the referee made the right decision not to award a penalty against Everton during their loss to Manchester City.
The Toffees suffered a 3-0 defeat to the treble-chasing side at Goodison Park, but it could’ve been worse when Jordan Pickford clattered into Erling Haaland in the second half.
The referee opted not to award a foul and while appearing on Sky Sports News’ Ref Watch (15 May, 11:33), Gallagher felt that was the right course of action for the incident.
“I think because Haaland does the same, Haaland has a look at where Pickford is and he’s quite happy to stand there,” Gallagher said. “He’s going to make no attempt to play the ball.
“The referee has the best view and once he says no penalty on the field, which I think is right, then VAR wouldn’t intervene.
“He is [entitled to put his body between Pickford and the ball. But I feel that Haaland does as much as Pickford and the referee is best off leaving it alone.
“He has three choices, penalty to Man City, free-kick to Everton or play on and he took the third choice.”
Sky Sports pundit Paul Robinson disagreed with Gallagher though, claiming it should have been a penalty.
“I think it’s a penalty. I know what Haaland has done, I watched it very closely. He’s seen Pickford coming and just held his ground and said he’s going to make it difficult for him.
“The actual challenge I don’t think is a penalty, I don’t think it’s a foul, but it’s the fact Jordan put his hand across his face. That’s the bit where you worry as a goalkeeper.
“When you watch the incident, yes there is a coming together and Haaland probably instigated the coming together, but the way that Jordan challenged him and put his hand across his face and brushed him aside. It’s the technique that the goalkeeper has chosen to go for the ball, its across the face.
“It’s clumsy and I think he’s run a real risk of giving away a penalty there.”
Lucky
Obviously because of the way the game went and the result, this incident is being a little bit overlooked by many because it was quite clear that Man City were the better team.
But it’s fair to say that had this incident been Ederson clattering into Dominic Calvert-Lewin or Neal Maupay then Goodison would have erupted and Everton fans would be furious if it wasn’t given.
Pickford makes a rash decision to clean out Haaland in the hope that he will get a hand on the ball first and he just doesn’t, which means he essentially just bundles him over in the box.
Sean Dyche will be delighted that it wasn’t given because it arguably could have resulted in a red card against him too and with the bottom of the table so tight, goal difference is super important.
In the end we got away with one but the result was bad enough and we didn’t need anything else to make it worse, so lets just count ourselves lucky and move on.