Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher has delivered his verdict on the Kurt Zouma and Raheem Sterling incident in Chelsea's win over Manchester City.
The Blues took a huge step towards a top four finish and denied Manchester City the Premier League title for the time being with a 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
Goals from Hakim Ziyech and Marcos Alonso secured the three points for Chelsea, but they did dodge two huge scares.
Sergio Aguero missed a penalty in embarrassing fashion, chipping the ball into Edouard Mendy's grasp before Manchester City almost won a late penalty to give them the chance to take the lead before Alonso's winner.
Raheem Sterling hit the deck with Kurt Zouma applying pressure from behind, but Anthony Taylor was not convinced and VAR did not see an obvious error to overturn the decision.
Though, former referee Gallagher disagrees, telling Sky Sports: "If the referee gives a penalty on the field, I'd say, 'Clumsy,' and we'd move on. Because the ref doesn't give a penalty, that's why we're talking about it.
"It's the safer option to give a penalty for that. I can't explain it. Zouma is clumsy, doesn't get the ball and I think it's a penalty. Once Anthony Taylor decides it's not a penalty, VAR can't say it's a clear and obvious error.
"If the penalty had been given, the VAR wouldn't have overturned it. However you cut it, this is an on-field decision."
There was a question of whether Sterling should have been on the pitch after putting in a high challenge on Timo Werner, a challenge only punished with a yellow card, and again, VAR agreed.
Gallagher agreed, too, responding when asked if it should have been a red card: "I think not. It's not a good tackle but he's one-footed, he's low, he doesn't travel too far.
"It's a high-tariff yellow card but I wouldn't expect him to be sent off for that."
