Exclusive: Madley hailed over Hudson-Odoi incident in Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal
Arsenal rightly did not have a penalty awarded against them in the first half of their clash with Nottingham Forest, Keith Hackett has said.
The former PGMOL chief and ex-FIFA official exclusively told Football Insider that Ricardo Calafiori did not make enough contact with a challenge on Callum Hudson-Odoi to warrant a spot kick.
The Gunners went into the game needing to bounce back in the title race with Liverpool following their damaging defeat to West Ham at the weekend.
While neither Arsenal nor Nottingham Forest were able to make a breakthrough in the first half, Mikel Arteta‘s side did survive one potential penalty scare.
Callum Hudson-Odoi looked for a penalty in front of Nottingham Forest fans
There has been plenty of frustration with referees from Arsenal this season as Arteta recently made clear with his comments.
That has come after a number of controversial decisions involving officials, such as the red card for Myles Lewis-Skelly against Wolves.
At The City Ground on Wednesday night (26 February) though, the Gunners did see one key decision go in their favour.
| Arsenal last five games | Resul |
| Girona (A) | Won 2-1 |
| Man City (H) | Won 5-1 |
| Newcastle (A) | Lost 2-0 |
| Leicester (A) | Won 2-0 |
| West Ham (H) | Lost 1-0 |
As Hudson-Odoi broke into the Arsenal area from the right-hand side, the winger went down after some minimal contact from Calafiori, who had already been booked.
There were wild appeals for a penalty from the Nottingham Forest in the stand behind that goal in particular.
Referee Andy Madley – who was at the centre of Everton’s overturned penalty against Man United at the weekend – elected not to award a spot kick or punish Calafiori further, with VAR also not intervening.
Now, Hackett has given his reaction to the way in which that potential penalty claim against Arsenal played out at The City Ground.
Keith Hackett reacts as Arsenal survive penalty scare at Nottingham Forest
Speaking to Football Insider about the decision not to award a penalty to Nottingham Forest, the former referee said:
“Sadly in the modern game we are witnessing players who receive a slight touch going to ground in the hope of winning a penalty kick and deceiving the referee.
“I do feel that this slight contact is part of football and despite the player going to ground there is no foul.
“The referee’s judgment was accurate and rightly VAR did not intervene because there was no clear and obvious error. No penalty kick the correct decision.”
Although Calafiori escaped punishment here, Arteta was clearly in no mood to take risks with the left-back, who was substituted to be replaced by Kieran Tierney at half-time in that game.
That change though made little difference as Arsenal played out a goalless draw with Forest to see their title hopes dealt a further blow.