Blame Atkinson for blunder that spoilt title party
MANCHESTER CITY should have won this contest, not just due to the numerous missed opportunities in the first half but because after 77 minutes they should have had a penalty and faced 10 opponents. Referees never want their performances to affect the outcome of a match but Martin Atkinson will be hard pressed to say that when watching the game back. How he and his assistant failed to award a penalty is beyond me. Manchester United’s Ashley Young flew into a tackle at pace, with both feet off the ground with studs up. That makes it a foul irrespective of its outcome. Match officials have been issued with clear guidelines on exactly this challenge. If contact is made with just the ball then a yellow card should be given, if there is any contact with the opponent then it must be a red card. Young did hit the ball but then went through Sergio Aguero, who was fortunate not to have been seriously injured. The momentum of the match would surely have swung back to the home team. Facing 10 men and having a penalty would certainly have given them the impetus they deserved to go on and clinch the title in this fixture. Atkinson should be grateful Pep Guardiola did not use the incident to excuse this defeat. I shudder to think of the reaction of his counterpart had the boot been on the other foot. City also should have been awarded a penalty much earlier in the game when Young handled after slipping over in the penalty area. This time I can understand Atkinson failing to be certain enough to award it. VAR would hopefully have cleared up the incident. In a recent interview, Atkinson highlighted that the start of each week involved reviewing his last performance. Today will not be an easy watch but he is experienced enough to admit that he should have got the game’s biggest decision right. Referees have to be honest and Atkinson, a down-to-earth Yorkshireman will perhaps even realise that this performance justifies FIFA’s decision not to take an English referee to the World Cup finals. When FIFA drew up their shortlist for the tournament, Mark Clattenburg and Atkinson were our only representatives under consideration. Clattenburg made the list, Atkinson did not. Once Clattenburg retired in 2017, aged 41, we were consigned to not having a referee at the finals for the first time since 1938. His early exit was nothing new. The two previous English World Cup referees both retired at 43.