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Former Premier League referee Keith Hackett says Chemsdine Talbi’s late winner for Sunderland at Chelsea should have been disallowed for offside
Hackett told Football Insider that Lutsharel Geertruida appeared to be in an offside position and was obstructing Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez’s view as Talbi struck the decisive goal in Sunderland’s 2–1 victory over the Blues.
Chelsea had taken an early lead through Alejandro Garnacho, who finished neatly beyond Robin Roefs inside four minutes. But Sunderland – the surprise story of the Premier League season – fought back through Wilson Isidor’s close-range equaliser after a long throw caused chaos in the Chelsea penalty area.
Régis Le Bris’ side then completed a remarkable turnaround deep into added time when substitute Brian Brobbey held up the ball before setting up Talbi, who slotted past Sanchez to send the away end into wild celebration. However, replays showed Geertruida near Sanchez in an offside position when the shot was taken, but VAR did check it and deemed the Dutchman not to be interfering with play.
Hackett, assessing the incident, said the goal should have been disallowed under Law 11 of the IFAB rules, which state that a player is deemed to be interfering with an opponent if they “prevent an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision.”
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“While I don’t like to see goals ruled out for offside, I am surprised the referee wasn’t asked to review the incident on the pitchside monitor,” Hackett said. “In my opinion, the Sunderland player standing in an offside position impacts the Chelsea goalkeeper, and the goal should have been ruled out.”
He continued: “The offside law states: ‘interfering with an opponent by preventing an opponent from playing or being able to play the ball by clearly obstructing the opponent’s line of vision.’ It is my belief that the Sunderland player standing in an offside position does impact on the Chelsea goalkeeper, and the goal should be ruled out for an offside offence.”
Despite the debate, Sunderland’s win – their first at Stamford Bridge since 2014 – lifted them to second place in the Premier League table with 17 points from nine matches, continuing an extraordinary start under Le Bris since promotion last season.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca bemoaned his side’s defending for the second goal but conceded that they had not done enough over the course of the game. "I think we were in general we were not good enough," Maresca said after the game.
"When you are not good enough in the Premier League, you know the consequences. I've said already, when you are not able to win it is important that you do not lose. The second goal is not a transition, it's a long ball in behind where we have 2-v-1. We do not defend properly. The first goal comes from a throw in but it is difficult, they bring six or seven inside your six-yard box. Overall, we were not good enough.
"It can be an easy situation because it is 2-v-1 and the striker is facing his own goal, probably we are trying to manage the situation because it is 92,93 minutes because we have to do better. We struggled to create chances, a lack of creativity. We didn't create a lot, we lost some duels and second balls at 1-0 and against this team, we need to do better. When we arrive in certain areas of the pitch, we cross because we expect to have four or five players inside the box but today when we cross, probably the quality of the cross was not the best one.”
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