Howard Webb has offered an explanation as to why John Stones\u2019 goal in Manchester City\u2019s victory over Wolves last season was allowed to stand, while Virgil van Dijk\u2019s strike at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday was ruled out.<\/p>\n
Both moments shared striking similarities \u2014 each came from a corner, featured an attacker standing near the goalkeeper in an offside position, and saw the ball end up in the net before the assistant\u2019s flag was raised. Yet, while VAR overturned the on-field decision at Molineux 13 months ago, the technology upheld the disallowance of Van Dijk\u2019s goal at the weekend.<\/p>\n
Webb clarifies the difference<\/p>\n
Speaking on the Premier League Match Officials Mic\u2019d Up show on Tuesday \u2014 where the VAR audio from the Liverpool incident was released \u2014 Webb was asked by Michael Owen why two almost identical cases produced opposite results.<\/p>\n
According to the PGMOL chief (via Sky Sports), \u201cThere\u2019s a clear distinction here. The ball goes directly over Jose Sa\u2019s head and doesn\u2019t pass over Bernardo Silva. Silva, though offside when Stones heads the ball, moves away from the flight of the ball. The ball travels over Sa, not Silva, unlike the Liverpool situation where the ball went over Andy Robertson, who ducked below it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard to say Sa was affected by Silva\u2019s movement. If the ball had gone over Silva\u2019s head and made Sa hesitate, then we\u2019d likely have confirmed the on-field call of disallowed goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fans left unconvinced<\/p>\n
Webb\u2019s explanation has done little to ease frustration. Many supporters have pointed out that during the Molineux incident, Silva clearly stepped toward Sa and even made contact before moving away \u2014 an act that arguably interfered more than Robertson\u2019s position did with Donnarumma on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Instead of settling the debate, Webb\u2019s comments have only deepened Liverpool fans\u2019 anger, who see his reasoning as inconsistent and confusing. Once again, supporters are questioning how top officials reach such contradictory decisions and why there seems to be so little accountability or improvement in Premier League refereeing standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Howard Webb has offered an explanation as to why John Stones\u2019 goal in Manchester City\u2019s victory over Wolves last season was allowed to stand, while Virgil van Dijk\u2019s strike at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday was ruled out. Both moments shared striking similarities \u2014 each came from a corner, featured an attacker standing near the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":54265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/stones-robertson-webb-1200x673.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54266,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54264\/revisions\/54266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/54265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}