‘I don’t know why’: Michael Owen angry as he thinks Newcastle player got lucky v Sheff Utd

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Michael Owen was fuming that Newcastle United’s opening goal during their absolute mauling of Sheffield United on Sunday wasn’t ruled out.

The former England striker thinks Anthony Gordon got lucky after he handled the ball in the build-up to the Englishman laying the ball on a plate for Sean Longstaff to open the scoring.

The rules state that because Anthony Gordon wasn’t the one who put the ball into the back of the net, then his actions, as he assisted his Newcastle United teammate, needed to be ‘deliberate’ in order for the goal to be ruled out.

But Owen stated that there is one rule for defenders and another for attackers, as he doesn’t think such a rule should be in place, as he told Premier League Productions (24/09/23 at 5:30 pm).

Anthony Gordon actually didn’t start the game, it was Havey Barnes who was named in Eddie Howe’s starting XI, only to get injured inside 12 minutes, which opened the door for the former Everton man to come on.

In the end, whilst that Sean Longstaff goal got the ball rolling, at the end of the day, the Magpies put a remarkable and record-breaking eight goals past their helpless opponents.

Anthony Gordon handball

“On that (yes, the rules have been applied correctly), but if it’s the defender, then deliberate comes out, doesn’t it?!” said Owen.

“Nobody deliberately handles the ball, nobody! Once a year for somebody. You mention the word deliberate (how it wasn’t deliberate by Anthony Gordon and that’s why the goal stood).

“We are getting penalties every week for handball. They are never deliberate. I don’t know why deliberate is in the world. They are never deliberate. We saw one in the Arsenal game, it wasn’t deliberate, but they still gave it.

“But when it’s an attacker, and it touches its hand, ‘oh, it’s not deliberate’. But when it touches a defender, it still gets given a penalty, so I don’t know why ‘deliberate’ is in the law.”

Newcastle smoke Sheffield United by eight

Take that Gordon goal away and it’s still an embarrassing performance of the highest order for Sheffield United.

After Newcastle’s trip to Italy in midweek for the Champions League, some might have questioned if they were going to have a hangover.

But it was far from it because they blew Sheffield United away so much that you have to question how their manager, Paul Heckingbottom, is going to survive this result and performance.