Jamie Vardy goal against Liverpool FC should have been disallowed, believes Howard Webb

Liverpool ran riot against Leicester City at Anfield on Saturday, thrashing the defending champions by an emphatic 4-1 scoreline. Former referee Howard Webb pointed out after the game that the Foxes’ solitary goal in the game should have been disallowed.

Howard Webb believes that Leicester City’s goal against Liverpool technically should have been disallowed and that the scoreline should have read 4-0 instead of 4-1. In a moment of sheer madness, Lucas passed the ball across his own goal straight to Jamie Vardy, who made no mistake and got Leicester back in the game after having fallen 2-0 down in the first half hour.

Amidst all the talk surrounding Lucas’ calamitous pass and the subsequent Vardy goal, Webb took to the mic for BT Sport and pointed out that that Shinji Okazaki entered the penalty area before the ball had left it following Simon Mignolet’s goal-kick, infringing on law 16 of the rule-book. The rules sanctioned by FIFA state that :

–  The ball must be stationary and is kicked from any point within the goal area by a player of the defending team

–  The ball is in play when it leaves the penalty area

–  Opponents must be outside the penalty area until the ball is in play

As far as the rules go, Lucas’ blushes could have been spared as the Vardy goal should not have counted. However, since it didn’t have a significant bearing on the final result, Liverpool and their supporters are unlikely to be too upset. Although the Reds could surely have done without the anxiety that followed that goal, second-half strikes from Lallana and Firmino meant the game was well and truly settled.

Tough start for Leicester

Claudio Ranieri’s men haven’t had the most ideal start to their title defence, having now picked up just 4 points from their first 4 games of the 2016-17 campaign. The Foxes suffered a shock opening day defeat at newly-promoted Hull City and looked to be gathering momentum thereafter with a competitive draw against Arsenal and a comprehensive 3-0 win over Swansea. However, it all fell apart once more on Saturday evening at a new-look Anfield where Liverpool ran out comfortable 4-1 winners over the defending champions.

The Foxes failed to put up the fight that enabled them to dispatch Jurgen Klopp’s team six months ago, when they beat them 2-0 on a rainy evening at the King Power Stadium. Even their solitary goal came off a major error from Liverpool’s makeshift centre-back Lucas Leiva. Ranieri’s team have a lot of work to be done if they are to maintain and continue the massive progress they made last year.

Things may not be panning out as well as the fairy-tale that wrote itself last year, but it’s during times like these that the Italian will be issued his true test of character and managerial prowess. That said, the Foxes have a Champions League journey starting from midweek to look forward to and they’d like to enjoy it every bit as much as they did during their unlikeliest of Premier League title victories last year.