PGMOL chief Howard Webb admitted Mateo Kovacic was lucky to stay on the pitch during Sunday’s clash between Manchester City and Arsenal on Match Officials Mic’d Up on Tuesday evening.
Kovacic’s challenges attracted attention during Sunday’s heavyweight clash between Arsenal and City at the Emirates, which saw the Gunners win 1-0.
Gabriel Martinelli – on the break – delivered the killing blow in a tense and close battle, his late strike deflecting Nathan Ake towards Ederson wrong-footed, ending Arsenal’s 12-game losing streak against City .
But it was perhaps Kovacic’s first-half antics that attracted the most attention, after he made two robust tackles, first on Martin Odegaard and then Declan Rice, just six minutes apart.
His lunge on Odegaard drew a yellow card from referee Michael Oliver, quickly followed by a VAR check to determine whether there was reason to upgrade the tackle to a red.
Howard Webb believes Mateo Kovacic was lucky to stay on the pitch on Sunday
Kovacic came under scrutiny for two robust challenges against Arsenal
Man City’s Croatian midfielder first fouls Martin Odegaard before challenging Declan Rice
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However, the Croatian midfielder survived the replays, but wasted no time in testing Oliver’s mettle once again.
He then tried to block Rice on the ball, but was late and hit the former West Ham skipper’s foot, catching him on the ankle as the Emirates erupted with calls for a sending-off.
Oliver, however, remained unmoved and immediately rejected calls for another booking, and with VAR unable to verify yellow card challenges, the video assistants were unable to have a say in the tackle.
“It was clearly a bad tackle and I’m pretty confident if a red card had been given by Michael Oliver that day it would have been very simple, ‘Full check’.
“But he doesn’t give a yellow card. I think there are some differences here: the player, Kovacic, enters the tackle with the right leg.
“There’s a little bit of weight on the left leg when he lunges, the right heel hits the ground and then the contact is a little bit more to the side with a right foot as opposed to a side foot that we’ve seen with (Malo Gusto’s foul on Lucas Digne).
“A few small differences, I think, which led the VAR to think that the yellow card decision on the pitch was not clearly and demonstrably incorrect and therefore to verify by completing it, believing that if he had intervened it would have was a re-arbitration of this decision by the on-field referee.
And when asked if Kovacic was lucky enough to stay on the pitch, Webb added: “Yes. I mean obviously VAR can’t get involved, second yellows are something the VAR can’t get involved, but I think he was an extremely lucky player to stay on the pitch.
“The referee, one of our best referees, one of the best referees in the world, Michael Oliver will definitely look at it.”
Gabriel Martinelli scored the winner in the tense battle between the two rivals on Sunday
PGMOL chief Webb was joined by former Liverpool and Man United striker Michael Owen.
Many pundits and former referees expressed their own opinions in the days that followed, with Gary Neville and Mark Clattenburg both saying the player should have seen red.
The show is designed to help fans better understand the refereeing process in the top flight, with some VAR calls and decisions in real time dissected on television.
Tuesday night’s show saw Webb and pundit Michael Owen discuss Luis Diaz’s controversial goal in Liverpool’s defeat to Tottenham the previous weekend.
The goal was disallowed when the player was clearly onside, due to poor communication from VAR who thought they were checking to confirm the goal was onside rather than offside.