The Premier League’s independent Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel says that Newcastle United should have been given a penalty in their impressive 1-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on March 14. The panel decided that referee Paul Tierney should have pointed to the spot when Chelsea captain Reece James pulled back Malick Thiaw in the penalty area during a corner kick in the 34th minute.
Anthony Gordon’s goal in the 18th minute of the first half had already put the Magpies ahead. Tino Livramento passed the ball through Chelsea’s defence to Joe Willock, who then crossed it across the area. The penalty happened when Newcastle were already ahead, and it could have given Eddie Howe’s team the chance to double their lead from 12 yards.
The KMI Panel voted 4-1 that Tierney made the wrong call because James was on the wrong side of Thiaw and stayed in contact with him the whole time. The panel decided that both players were holding on to each other, but the Chelsea captain’s actions were not football-related and had an effect on the outcome of the challenge. The panel, on the other hand, all agreed that VAR official Michael Salisbury was right not to get involved because the incident did not meet the standard for a clear and obvious mistake.
Keith Hackett, a former FIFA referee and head of the PGMOL, agreed with the panel and told Football Insider that James was lucky not to be punished. Dermot Gallagher, a former Premier League referee, agreed with this on Sky Sports’ Ref Watch. He said that the Chelsea captain’s approach during the set piece was wrong.
Jay Bothroyd, Gallagher’s co-pundit, said he was surprised that the decision wasn’t changed. He said that James’ holding lasted several steps without ever looking at the ball. Newcastle still won, though, and moved up to ninth place in the Premier League table, six points behind Chelsea, who are in fifth place.
KMI Panel Identifies Significant Increase In Incorrect Decisions This Season
This season, there have been 54 mistakes by Premier League referees, which is the same number as last season’s total.
The KMI Panel’s most recent round of evaluations found that there were many mistakes made by referees, including the one at Stamford Bridge. The panel found four new mistakes made by referees in games played between March 14 and 16, bringing the total for the season to 54 wrong calls. At this point last year, there had only been 44 mistakes, which is a big increase from the year before.
Arsenal should have been awarded a penalty against Everton when Michael Keane fouled Kai Havertz, and Brentford should have been awarded a penalty when Andre of Wolverhampton Wanderers held Kevin Schade. The fourth mistake was showing Leeds United’s Gabriel Gudmundsson a second yellow card that was wrong at Crystal Palace. Under current rules, VAR couldn’t look at it again.
There have already been 18 VAR mistakes this season, which is the same number as there were in the whole 2024-25 season. Even though there have been more mistakes, the overall accuracy of on-field decisions has stayed the same at about 86 per cent throughout the season. PGMOL has said that the total number of VAR interventions has gone down from 89 to 83, which shows that decision-making on the pitch is still getting better and closer to the league’s high standard.