bigfluffylemon wrote:There was absolutely no justification to get annoyed about it at all, let alone the disgraceful scenes that followed
This might sound a bit insane (so bare with me), but I completely disagree with that, while also agreeing it was a penalty in this case. The fact is, in the last couple of weeks there have been about 5 incidents that I can remember where penalties were given or not given for ultra bizarre reasons on handballs, and the rule interpretation used to explain those decisions has to be used a precedent to guide players on what the rules are.... and the truth is, it seems all they do is make up a different rule depending on what the referee thinks.
Take the Leipzig v City match in Germany in the first leg. The Leipzig central defender pretty much punches the ball in front of his face, and it looks deliberate. In that case they agreed with the ref that it wasnt a penalty, because his arm with inside the body (ie, if his arm wasnt there, its hitting his chest) and that was fine. Then you get Arsenal have an incident very similar to the Willian one (v Villa IIRC, maybe someone else) where the argument again was its not a penalty because the player is trying to get his hands out of the way into his body. Then in the last week before this, two penalties (City v Leipzig in the return leg, Liverpool v Bournemouth in the PL) were given against a defensive player at a corner who had jumped up , in both cases missed the ball, in both cases were hit on their arm facing the other way as they were coming down from a header, and in both cases flattly impossible to have done anything else. In both cases, the penalty was given because the arm being out while jumping up was deemed to make them "unnaturally bigger".
Essentially, since the rule change, the referees have consistently given penalties against players with their arms out, and consistently not given penalties for players who are, or attempting at the very least, to make their body smaller.
So what is Willian supposed to do? Well, as soon as he sees the shot coming in, he knows he needs to get his arms tucked in. That's the way its been referred, and thats the way that players have basically been instructed to play. Shot comes in, damn well make sure if it hits your arm that arm is not out in space, even if such a position would be natural or impossible to avoid.
So while people suggest "hes moving his hand to the ball"... is he? You see this literally every match, players move their hands down to their waist and tucked in. To me, he's trying to get his knee up and his arm tucked in. I have 100% sympathy for him.... that exact action he has taken is basically what the guardians of the game have told him he needs to do, and yet again, he follows that, and they change the way the rule is referred again.