Alan Shearer has revealed he does not think Newcastle United should have been awarded a penalty that saw them earn a draw against Manchester City.
Anthony Gordon was judged to have been fouled by City goalkeeper Ederson at St James’ Park with the Brazilian picking up a yellow card for his trouble. The former Everton star made no mistake from the spot to convert the opportunity he had won to cancel out Josko Gvardiol’s opening effort.
The moment has drawn controversy with many believing that Ederson was justified in his protests towards Jarred Gillett. One fan even searched for Shearer’s opinion and drew comparison to the penalty Liverpool’s Diogo Jota won against Newcastle last season.
On that occasion, Shearer labelled Jota “f****** embarrassing” as Mo Salah sealed victory for the Reds. The X user looked to attempt to catch the Newcastle legend out as a result.
“There’s literally no contact and if there is it’s less then Jota’s was. Same energy @alanshearer, it just looks better still could have stayed on his feet,” they posted.
Shearer was soon quoting the message to him and was clear in his comment. “I didn’t think it was a pen. That ok?” he said.
Speaking following the game, during his coverage for Premier League Live, the ex-England captain reaffirmed that he did not believe the Magpies should have been awarded a spotkick. Shearer instead suggested Gordon’s poor touch saw him manufacture the foul.
“I’m delighted it was given from a Newcastle perspective but I didn’t think it was a penalty,” he said. “Gordon has taken a heavy touch and he’s never getting anywhere near that ball and he realises. If there’s a touch it’s a tiny touch and he initiates the touch Gordon. I think Newcastle got really lucky, I didn’t think it was a penalty at all.”
“His touch is awful and once he knows he can’t get his touch, his second thought is how do I try and get a penalty,” he added. “So many players do it. We see it all of the time and we’ll see anoter 10 or 20 players doing that.”
While critics may have hoped VAR intervened to rule out the penalty, the Premier League’s Match Centre did confirm why Ederson was not shown a red card during the incident.
They said: “The referee [ Jarred Gillett] awarded a penalty for a foul by Ederson on Anthony Gordon. He issued a yellow card to Ederson after he deemed his actions were a genuine attempt to play the ball but denied an obvious goal scoring opportunity. The VAR [ Paul Tierney] checked and confirmed the referee’s call of penalty and a yellow card to Ederson.”\