Danny Murphy stunned by what happened in West Ham United win v Fulham
Danny Murphy was absolutely stunned that West Ham were awarded a penalty for Craig Dawson forearming Andreas Pereira in their win over Fulham.
The Hammers were gifted a penalty when Pereira blocked Dawson at a corner during their 3-1 win, despite being warned three times by the referee before the corner was even allowed to be taken.
But speaking on BBC Match of the Day 2 [9 October], former Fulham midfielder Murphy was absolutely stunned that the referee was conned by Dawson who he says initiated contact with the defender to win the foul.
“I agree with Moyes that Pereira is absolutely stupid for trying to block this way,” he said.
“He gets a warning. That’s ridiculous. If the ball had come in off that corner it’s a penalty. He gets away with a warning, he’s lucky.
“But he’s in the ref’s head. And I get that. It’s human nature for the ref to think he’s trying to do it again.
“But actually, it’s not a penalty and the reason it’s not a penalty is because the first contact made, he doesn’t have to move Pereira, the first contact made is a forearm to the face [by Dawson].
“Bang. How that is a penalty is just beyond belief. But I understand what happened before has made the ref think it’s a block.
“But the first contact, which is all you can give the decision on, is Dawson. You can tell by his face he doesn’t think it’s a pen. He forearms him.”
Mental
The only explanation for this from Murphy is that he’s absolutely lost the plot, because what on Earth is he waffling on about here?
The reason Dawson makes the first contact with Pereira is because the Brazilian is literally trying to block him, meaning he isn’t moving and not allowing Dawson to run.
He’s magically managed to ignore the fact that Pereira isn’t looking at the ball at any point, and that he has his arms outstretched in order to stop Dawson getting any yardage on him instead of defending properly.
It’s a foul and it’s as clear as day that Pereira deserved to concede the penalty, and while Dawson used his experience to ensure the referee knew what was happening and bought the foul, the foul has to occur for that to happen.
Murphy is obviously upset that his team got beat convincingly by West Ham after taking the lead, but that’s an incredibly weird stance to take for something so obvious.