Sam Allardyce has called for more consistency with the handball rule following West Brom’s 1-0 win over Brighton on Saturday.
Kyle Bartley’s 11th-minute goal was enough to give the Baggies a crucial three points as they survived two missed penalties and a controversial disallowed goal at the Hawthorns.
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Allardyce took issue with the VAR’s decision to award Brighton their first penalty of the day when Pascal Gross’ corner was handballed by Okay Yokuslu.
The West Brom boss claimed the handball was accidental – very much like Callum Hudson-Odoi’s offence which went unpunished in Chelsea’s goalless draw with Manchester United on Sunday.
Allardyce told Monday’s talkSPORT Breakfast: “I’m obviously not happy there’s such controversy around our game.
“You’d prefer to be playing a game of football without talking about what decisions should or shouldn’t have happened and talk about the game in such a time in the season where we’re fighting to try to get points on the board to get out of the relegation zone.
“Obviously Brighton aren’t totally safe yet, but they’re in a very good position.
“Unfortunately, it all stems around not just the controversial goal that was disallowed, but also having reviewed the penalty situations where there were two given against us, which everybody seems to forget.
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“If you’re telling me Hudson-Odoi’s [handball] wasn’t a penalty then Okay’s penalty was not a penalty on Saturday.
“So where is the consistency? That was a clearly accidental handball.”
Gross and Danny Welbeck were guilty of missing the Brighton penalties, while Lewis Dunk had a goal from a free-kick disallowed by Lee Mason.
The referee blew his whistle for Dunk to take the free-kick, which caught out West Brom goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, but Mason then disallowed the goal, which led to protests from Brighton players.
In a manic five minutes, Mason then allowed the goal to stand, only for VAR to rule it out due to the official blowing his whistle a second time before the ball had crossed the line.
“I understand Brighton’s point of view because that was obviously a mistake from Lee,” added Allardyce.
“But the mistake was rectified by law from our fortunate point of view because he blew the whistle again before it entered the net.”
Big Sam believes Premier League referees have too many rules to deal with on the pitch nowadays, but he wants the handball rule to be carried out with consistency.
He added: “The referees are given far too many rules and regulation changes… I think sometimes we need to get the basic rules back in the game, particularly on penalties.
“Is it intentional handball or isn’t it? That makes it clear and obvious.
“This ‘arms by your side’ or ‘arms in an unnatural position’… as we all know as professional footballers, a natural position when you’re jumping is having your arms out to the side to get the elevation to go up in the air, so that is your natural position.
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“So to have to actually think about standing as a defender and defending with your hands behind your back, which is happening an awful lot, is ridiculous.
“So the referees have so much going on in their mind about what should or shouldn’t happen in that particular situation because of new legislation, new laws that are coming in and have been changed so often and so much… it causes more confusion.”
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