Daniel Feliciano

Mon 8 May 2023 7:19, UK

BBC Match of the Day pundits Danny Murphy and Jermain Defoe were furious with the referee after he didn’t award West Ham a penalty against Manchester United.

The Hammers claimed a 1-0 win thanks to Said Benrahma’s first-half strike, but the Hammers should have had a penalty on the stroke of half-time after Victor Lindelof handled the ball in the area.

But the referee failed to award the spot kick and when analysing the game live on Match of the Day 2 (7 May), both pundits were baffled by the decision.

“It’s not a natural position is it?” Defoe said. “When you watch it there he’s actually moved his arm. For me it’s a handball and it’s a penalty.”

Murphy agreed and claimed the handball rule was the issue, but said he got away with one.

“I think he’s got away with it,” he said. “The only reason I can think is that his hand is near his body but it’s not hit his hand.

“But you know that with this handball rule until it gets clarified we’re going to have these debates and these problems.”

Crazy

People say that decisions tend to balance out over the course of the season, but at this stage of the season there is no time for stuff like that.

Murphy could well be right that the law didn’t help on this occasion, but it seems silly that officials both on the pitch an especially in the VAR room aren’t able to just apply common sense to these decisions.

Anyone with eyes can see that was a penalty that should be given and had West Ham not claimed the win on the day we would rightly be absolutely furious about the decision.

Instead though we battled hard and got the win we needed, and now our Premier League status is all but secured in spite of the rubbish officiating.

Now all eyes turn to Thursday’s Europa Conference League semi-final clash with AZ Alkmaar and we can try and put a real stamp on the season to end it positively.