Howard Webb explains why penalty wasn’t given against Matty Cash during Kai Havertz handball that ruled out strike against Aston Villa on Match Officials Mic’d Up… as PGMOL chief praises referee Jarred Gillett for call

Howard Webb has explained why Matty Cash was not awarded a penalty during Kai Havertz’s disallowed goal against Aston Villa.

Havertz thought he had equalized for the Gunners at Villa Park last week but Gille whistled and had the goal disallowed for handball.

Despite protests from Arsenal players and criticism from Mikel Arteta, the incident was dealt with and the goal disallowed, with Villa winning the game 1-0 to move level with the Premier League leaders.

Webb was speaking on the latest edition of Mic’d Up for Match Officials, a show which aims to explain some of the controversial decisions made by referees.

The PGMOL boss explained that despite the Gunners moving forward unintentionally, the strike had to be ruled out.

Howard Webb praised Jared Gillett (centre) for ruling out Kai Havertz’s goal against Aston Villa last week.

Gillett made a live bet at Villa Park and after a short VAR check the goal was ruled illegal.

Fans questioned why a penalty was not awarded after the ball was shown to have hit Matty Cash’s hand.

Mail Sport has launched a campaign to stop abuse of referees at all levels of the game

“The law states that any contact with a striker’s hand, even accidental, that then leads to an immediate goal being scored must be penalised,” Webb said. “And in that regard, it was actually a really good decision by referee Jared Gillett on the field. The law requires him to be punished if he sees contact on Kai Havertz’s hand.

“It’s not intentional, but it still needs to be punished. I think the idea was that if the ball came off the hand it wouldn’t be a fair goal – that’s why the law was passed. But we see that this situation results in a goal being disallowed when it hits Havertz’s hand and yet a few seconds earlier it also hit Matty Cash’s hand – also by accident – but he was not punished.”

Arsenal fans, commenting on the publication of the incident on social networks, noted that the ball first hit Cash’s hand.

This led some viewers to wonder why a penalty was not awarded instead, but Webb explained how the rules differ for a defender and an attacker in this situation.

“He can’t be penalized because as a defender he has to commit a different offense – he has to get unnaturally bigger or be intentional in his possession of the ball,” Webb said. “He doesn’t do any of those things, so it’s right not to punish, but we work with a different threshold for the striker. It hits Havertz’s hand and in those circumstances we have to disallow the goal.

“This law has been in effect, I think, for about five years. The International Football Association Board (IFAB) decided through consultation that hand-kicked goals were unfair and therefore this law was passed. Laws are constantly being reviewed and may change, but in this case, under the circumstances, the referee did absolutely the right thing.

“And then, once the decision on the field has been made as a goal disallowed, the VAR checks the footage, just to make sure that the referee did not mistakenly see the contact with the hand. In this case, the target must stand if it only hits the body.

Arsenal players then surrounded Gillette and criticized his call, which was subsequently supported by manager Mikel Arteta.

Webb explained that in this situation, the rules for the defender and the attacker are different.

“But of course VAR has to check whether there is clear evidence that the ball did not hit the hand in order to intervene. If it’s not final, they’ll just leave the decision alone on the field. But in fact, when you see the VAR process, they get to the point where they see the angle showing contact with Havertz’s hand.

“The interesting thing is that if Nketiah had scored the goal, it would have stood because it only affects the scorer – in this case Havertz, who touched the hand. It didn’t hit Nketiah’s hand – if he pokes it, it’s a goal, because everything before that was accidental.

“He (Gillette) can see everything perfectly from 25 yards away. He does (makes the right decision in real time). And we always encourage referees, even with VAR, to be prepared to make positive, accurate and correct decisions on the field. We’ve been saying for a long time: good refereeing starts on the playing field.

“VAR is not needed to referee the game, but to protect against obvious mistakes. Jared clearly sees the situation from this position and punishes, and has the right to do so – you have to give him credit for that.”