Mark Clattenburg reacts live on air to controversial incident in Everton loss v Man City
Mark Clattenburg doesn’t agree with the decision to award Manchester City a penalty in the game against Everton on Wednesday (27 December).
Speaking on Prime Video on Wednesday (10:37pm), the former Premier League referee said it was a “big decision” that “changed the game” after Amadou Onana was adjudged to have deliberately handled Nathan Ake’s shot on goal in the second half.
He added that referees will always look to penalise a potential handball with a penalty when it’s blocking a goalbound effort, with Julian Alvarez slotting home from the spot for the Citizens in their 3-1 victory at Goodison Park.
“Well it certainly changed the game,” said Clattenburg. “It was a big decision and it’s one of them, where I’ve listened to the comments earlier on and what’s interesting is, the difference for me in this situation is because it’s a shot on goal and when you block a shot on goal with an outstretched arm – even though he’s trying to block the ball – because it’s a shot on goal, this is where referees will always look to penalise as a penalty.
“Do I agree with it? I don’t. But we’ve been discussing handball for many years and we’re still no further forward of actually improving it.”
Proved costly
This is a decision that certainly proved to be costly for Everton as Manchester City took the lead following Alvarez’s penalty and there was no way back for the hosts from that point onwards.
It felt like a pretty harsh decision as Onana was clearly making an attempt to block the ball and his hand wasn’t that far outstretched from his body.
There wasn’t too much he could do in the situation besides not diving in to make the block in the first place, but that could’ve led to Ake having a free shot on goal.
The biggest issue here is that no one really knows what the law is in this situation because even Clattenburg – a highly experienced former referee – doesn’t agree with the decision.
It’s about time we received a bit more clarity for instances like this and started to see some more consistency from the officials because the standard is the worst it’s ever been at this moment in time.
In other Everton news, Dyche has revealed what he told Andre Gomes about his future at Goodison Park.