Sunderland were controversially denied a penalty against Manchester United after Benjamin Sesko’s raised boot nearly struck Trai Hume’s head but appeared to miss making contact, leading to the original decision to award a spot-kick being reversed. Confusion reigned as Stuart Attwell initially pointed to the penalty spot following protests from the away side at Old Trafford.
The referee needed to discuss with his assistant before first granting the penalty. VAR subsequently stepped in to examine the incident and eventually directed Attwell to review the footage again. It emerged that whilst the ball had struck Hume’s face, Sesko had not made contact during the clash, apart from possibly brushing his rival’s shoulder.
Once more, the sluggish decision-making process proved maddening for both players and supporters, with Bruno Fernandes seeming to signal it wasn’t a penalty before the official’s ruling.
The Premier League Match Centre said: “After VAR review, the referee overturned the original decision of penalty to Sunderland. Referee announcement: “After review, there is no foul by the Manchester United player. He does not make contact with the head of the attacker. As the ball is out of play when the decision was made, the final decision is corner kick.”
Former official Mike Dean questioned whether Attwell required sending to the monitor whatsoever. The Sky Sports analyst thought it shouldn’t have consumed so much time, considering the verdict that was needed. Dean voiced his concerns on Soccer Saturday, stating: “The issue I have, we have referees as VARs and assistant referees as assistant VARs.
“For some reason today, we’ve got an assistant referee as VAR and an assistant VAR. So they don’t really know what’s happened. For me, there’s no contact whatsoever. He shouldn’t have been sent to the screen, it should have been cleared on the field.”
This decision threatened to overshadow an otherwise thrilling first half for Ruben Amorim’s squad. Mason Mount broke the deadlock just eight minutes in, with United taking the initiative against their in-form rivals.
Sesko then extended their lead shortly after the half-hour mark, as the Red Devils sought to bounce back from their loss to Brentford a week prior.