Manchester City were lucky not to concede a penalty in their 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa, the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel has ruled, and the man who escaped was Elliot Anderson.
The panel voted 3:2 that Villa should have been given a spot-kick in the 30th minute at Villa Park, when Johan Manzambi broke into the area and went to ground under a challenge from City’s £116m midfielder.
Referee Peter Bankes waved the appeals away, and the VAR, Paul Tierney, checked the incident and cleared it. On that second part the panel sided with the officials, though only just: by another 3:2 split, it felt Tierney was right not to intervene.
Why did the panel think it was a penalty?
The three members in the majority on the on-field call did not believe Anderson was trying to play the ball at all. In their view, “Anderson makes no attempt to win the ball and makes his body bigger by moving across to block Manzambi.”
That is a blunt description of a defensive action, and it is hard to read it as anything other than a foul. It is also the kind of decision that splits opinion, and it split the panel almost down the middle.
The majority on the VAR question took the other line, deciding that “the subjectivity of the decision meant it should remain referee’s call.” Put simply: it should have been a penalty, but it was not a clear and obvious error for the VAR to overturn.
Would a Villa penalty have changed the result?
Not in City’s favour. Villa were already ahead when Manzambi went down, after Nicolas Jackson punished a Marc Guehi error inside six minutes, so a converted penalty would have made it 2-0 before half-time.
As it was, Erling Haaland headed City level in the 52nd minute, only for Jackson to strike again on the hour when Gianluigi Donnarumma fumbled his shot into the net. Haaland’s frustration with his goalkeeper that afternoon had been building well before then, and City never found a way back.
So the ruling costs Maresca’s side nothing in the table. If anything, Aston Villa are the ones entitled to feel aggrieved, having been denied the chance to put the game to bed much earlier.
A rare black mark for Anderson
It is an unusual blemish on what has been an excellent start to life at the Etihad. Anderson has been setting the standard in Maresca’s midfield since his summer move, and it was his surging run and cross that set up Haaland’s winner in the 3-2 Champions League victory at RB Leipzig on Wednesday.
His next assignment has a twist. City go to his old club Nottingham Forest on Saturday, and the record at the City Ground gives Maresca enough to think about without any more refereeing debates.
Verdict: Elliot Anderson got away with one at Villa Park
We think the majority got the first call right. Moving across a runner without any attempt to play the ball reads like a penalty, and City were fortunate that Bankes did not point to the spot.
The VAR verdict is the more interesting part. A 3:2 vote either way shows how thin the line between “referee’s call” and “clear and obvious error” has become. The result stands, Anderson moves on, but he will know he was let off at Villa Park.
