This caught me by surprise. I had no idea that there were fans — never mind paid pundits — that thought we should not have been awarded our first penalty against Leeds.

Richard Keys seems to think the Laws of the Game prove Michael Oliver was wrong. Shall we see if he’s right? https://twitter.com/richardajkeys/status/1305088907961339904">https://twitter.com/richardaj...

OF COURSE HE’S NOT RIGHT. He’s @richardajkeys. He’s paid to peddle low-hanging fruit opinion. It doesn’t take a sports network’s resources to figure out that Oliver got this right. It takes literally one minute of perusing the Laws of the Game:

Yes, friends of football, it is still not handball is the ball touches a player’s hand or arm directly from their own head or body (including the foot), as was the case with Koch against Salah. In fact, the Laws now don’t even include the ambiguous “usually” bit.

That qualifier only counts if the defender didn’t make their body “unnaturally bigger” when he touched the ball with his hand/arm.

Hence, “Except for the above offences, ...”

Koch stretched his arm out parallel to the ground. Ergo, the deflection didn’t count.

For whatever reason, rival fans can’t be bothered to read the Laws before they cite them in yet another hamfisted attempt to prove that refs somehow favor the Reds.

Unsurprisingly, @richardajkeys is happy to join the party.

As for us? Salah hat-trick. Three points. Thanks much!