Referee’s chief Mike Riley claims Mike Dean has admitted to having made a mistake in awarding  West Brom  a penalty in their 1-1 draw with  Arsenal  on New Year’s Eve.

Wenger-Dean

However Riley, the managing director of Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL), the body responsible for Premier League referees,, says that Dean has admitted to an error in penalising Arsenal.

“You award the penalty because what you have seen on the pitch is the arm coming towards the ball,” Riley said.

“What is handball can look to you on the field of play if you get one look at it. But immediately there is evidence from another camera angle which shows actually the opposite happened. That is the safety net of the VAR.

“I think Chambers would have been overturned. The question you ask is, is it an act of deliberate handball? And the reverse angle shows him trying to bring his arm out of the way of the ball, rather than the reverse.

“I know Mike would have overturned it. He messages people, and he’s a very honest guy, and he goes, ‘I got it wrong’. He knows he did.”