@SkyBet Any chance of a goodwill gesture on my acca that only lost by 1 leg being Everton to win when they should of been awarded a penalty late into the game?
Tarkowski.
As a defender he has every right to try to use legal means (torso) to stop the ball. The fact he leant into the ball is irrelevant unless he deliberately used his arm to stop the ball. He is absolutely allowed to use torso and unfortunately humans can't yet detach an arm.
Secondly, he pulls his arm away ( in a split second, absolutely aware his left arm would be a problem if the ball caught it, so he's being honest, which should be taken into account) to try and get as much body on the ball as possible.
These two points are facts.
The problem then becomes poor interpretation of law( dogmatic, rigid, inflexible), rather than common sense which pieces all of the puzzle together rather allowing a referee to make a rational, informative decision.
The referee should have taken to the screen and said..
" Tarkowski, by attempting to move his left arm beside or behind his body showed that he did not attempt to deliberately handle the ball, indeed his unnatural arm position clearly showed the opposite. No penalty.."
Don't care who you support, it's not illegal to lean to stop a ball and it's not illegal to have an arm. A referee should see the whole picture not the bit that supports an argument.