Penalty Encroachment
This weekend during the Arsenal vs Man City game you saw something that was quite rare in the Premiership. An Assistant signaling for encroachment on a goalkeeper at a penalty.
You can see after the kick is taken that the assistant flags across his waist to signal encroachment. Let me let in you on a secret. A lot of Referee’s will advise you as an assistant that when you consider signaling for encroachment was the keepers movement the reason the kicker missed. For example if he puts it 10 yards wide, was the keepers movement really a factor? Im not saying this is correct and is contrary to law, however if you blew up for every bit of encroachment you would either never have a successful penalty or the keepers wouldn’t bother moving.
The other question from this incident is why was the assistant ignored. This i cant answer. I believe he was told to drop his flag. If he was missed he could have buzzed or even stood his ground. However the fact he after a couple of seconds moves back to his regular position says to me that he was told to drop his flag.
Note: Not sure how long the video will stay live
