Ian Wright told BBC One’s Match of the Day that the correct call was made to award Manchester United a penalty during their 2-1 win against Aston Villa on Friday night.
With the game poised at 1-1 following Betrand Traore’s equaliser, Paul Pogba was seemingly fouled in the penalty area by Douglas Luiz, with the on-field referee not hesitating in pointing to the spot straightaway.
But replays showed that Pogba first clipped Luiz’s standing leg before clipping his own leg and going down, which angered a lot of Villa fans because it ended up costing them a valuable point.
Well, those very same Villa supporters aren’t going to exactly be pleased with Arsenal legend Wright because he feels it was a penalty.
“Dean Smith wasn’t happy when he said he watched it again,” said Wright. “But he was clipped. We can see it, he [Luiz] has clipped [Pogba] then he clips his own foot.
“But if it doesn’t happen from Douglas Luiz then he probably doesn’t see it. And in the current climate that is a penalty.”
Going by just the performance, it would have been a fair result if the game had finished 2-2 because Dean Smith’s men deserved much more from the match – Eric Bailly’s last-ditch block and the Man United players celebrations after the game says it all for disgruntled Villa supporters.
After a sloppy and slow start to the game from Villa, they began to warm up as the first-half progressed, but were trailing heading into the break.
Regardless of the opposition, the Villa players took the game to Manchester United in the second-half with the likes of Jack Grealish, Matty Cash, John McGinn, Anwar El Ghazi and Ollie Watkins causing all kinds of havoc with little reward.
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