‘Physical contact’ - Dermot Gallagher issues verdict on controversial moment during Arsenal vs Man Utd

Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has weighed in on the decisions many saw as debatable during Manchester United’s clash with Arsenal.

The Red Devils nearly took a point home from the Emirates Stadium, but they wound up leaving with nothing after Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus scored late to take the game away from Erik ten Hag’s men. Marcus Rashford actually put United ahead earlier in the game, but Arsenal hit straight back through Martin Odegaard.

Before Arsenal went ahead, Alejandro Garnacho saw a goal disallowed in the final minute of the game, with VAR catching an offside.

Speaking about that incident, former top-flight referee Gallagher tolk Sky Sports: “This is what VAR is for - if they put the lines across and say it is offside, it is just offside. Once you put the lines on, you can see that Gabriel has not tilted quite as far forward as Garnacho.”

Some United fans also thought Rasmus Hojlund should have been awarded a penalty, but referee Anthony Taylor was having none of it.

“There’s physical contact but the defender is just too strong,” Gallagher added. “Hojlund pushes the ball too far and Gabriel holds his ground, he doesn’t do anything wrong.

“You see this all the time and I’d have been stunned if Anthony Taylor had given anything for it.”

Another incident some fans were unhappy about involved a Jonny Evans tussle in the seconds leading up to Rice’s late goal, but Gallagher thinks the incident was best left alone, given it could have gone either way.

He continued: “It could have been a foul the other way. They’re both grappling with each other. In the end, Evans throws Gabriel out of the way. It’s a difficult call. The referee has got a perfect view. It could have easily gone the other way which would have been a penalty.”

As for the overturned penalty decision involving Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Gallagher said: “Hand on heart, when I saw that yesterday, I thought penalty. When I saw the second replay, I changed my mind 100 per cent.

“For me, I thought he tripped him, but when I saw the replay, Wan-Bissaka places his foot and Havertz goes into him. So the right decision has been come to and that is what we want, we talked about it last week.”