Two pundits disagree on Nottingham Forest incident involving Anthony Elanga, another has zero sympathy
09/30/2024 02:30 PM
Nottingham Forest were beaten 1-0 by Fulham on Saturday as their unbeaten start to the campaign came crashing to a halt.
The Reds were left to rue a drab performance – although neither goalkeeper had much to do during the contest that barely looked like a Premier League clash.
Forest once again enjoyed a hatred for VAR after a couple of big decisions went against them including the match-winning penalty.
Murillo was deemed to have stood on Andreas Pereira and Raul Jimenez stepped up to send the away end into raptures.
Forest have still made a strong start with nine points from six games but with Chelsea away to come, there is definitely still work to do.
The Reds were handed something of a reality check but ultimately the decision not to award Anthony Elanga a penalty in the second half looked like a wrong one.
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Pundits disagree on Anthony Elanga decision during Forest defeat
The decision not to send Josh Smith over to the screen by John Brooks looks like a bad one, with Calvin Bassey not playing any of the ball when trying to tackle Elanga.
The clear division of this decision was evident earlier on Monday when Dermot Gallagher and Sue Smith disagreed on the incident.
Gallagher doesn’t feel that the incident met the threshold for a clear and obvious error, with the belief that the decision was right.
He told Ref Watch on Sky Sports News: “I think it’s a really difficult one to call that, he catches him but is there enough for him to go down like that? That for me is not a clear and obvious error.”
Smith who represented Arsenal and England in the women’s game doesn’t agree and she felt Forest were very unlucky.
She added: “You see I thought this was a penalty. I feel like he goes through Elanga first to sweep the ball, I thought that was a penalty.”
Dean Ashton added his two pence worth in and he doesn’t think that Elanga helped himself with the fall.
He claimed: “It’s not a normal fall to go down, he emphasises the fall, he doesn’t help himself that’s just not natural.”
Forest have to stick together and bounce back
The Reds were hard done by against Fulham but in truth, they were still worthy of a point on another day they might have claimed one.
Morgan Gibbs-White was a huge miss for the Reds and the decision to leave Elanga and Callum Hudson-Odoi on the bench looked odd.
Still, Nuno Espirito Santo saw a game plan work for 45 minutes but what caught him off guard was Fulham grabbing the first goal.
Chasing it proved problematic and it was probably Hudson-Odoi who wasted the best chance when he seemingly did everything right before firing over the bar.
Forest can’t afford to dwell on the decisions for too long but once again it feels like VAR has let the club down.
