Crystal Palace: Match of the Day pundit questions controversial VAR decision
Aaron Hindhaugh | 08:25 04/10/22
Alan Shearer can't believe Thiago Silva wasn't sent off for his handball against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Eagles got off to a dream start at Selhurst Park on Saturday afternoon as Odsonne Edouard's first goal of the season put Crystal Palace into a 1-0 lead, although Conor Gallagher's 90th-minute strike was enough to snatch all the points away from Patrick Vieira's side.
While Gallagher's first goal for Chelsea coming against his former club was a big story and made plenty of headlines, the one that will live long in the memories of Palace fans is Silva's handball which stopped Jordan Ayew from breaking through on goal.
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Shearer claimed on Match of the Day that Silva was 'very lucky' to have not been given his marching orders in the first half.
"I would say he's very lucky. It should be a red card, for me. Ayew is away, because he's going to get that away [from Silva] with the right side of his foot and in on goal."
Shearer, however, did pre-empt any questions or opinions from Chelsea fans or the PGMOL potnetially trying to defend the decision, as he added:
Did VAR make a major Palace mistake?
"I know what they'll say, is that Chilwell is near enough to get to him – I don't think so. I think he's very, very fortunate there. You can see, deliberate handball there and as I said, he's going to hit that with the outside of his right foot. If he doesn't handle that, he's going to go down on goal, so for me, it should have been a red card."
TIF Thoughts on this huge decision that went against Palace…
While many Palace fans may not have expected to pick up three points or even a draw against a powerhouse such as Chelsea, they will have expected to have been given a fair chance of getting such a result at home.
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However, with Silva not being handed his marching orders despite a deliberate handball which halted Ayew's progress towards goal with no Chelsea players anywhere near him to stop his progress, that was far from the case.
Even Chelsea boss Graham Potter couldn't simply dismiss the talk of a red card and admitted that the Blues did indeed get a bit lucky when it came to the colour of the card handed to Silva, so this surely has to go down as a massive refereeing mistake.
Aaron Hindhaugh