Ex-ref reveals why Sandro Tonali was not punished for Newcastle United v Manchester United incident

Newcastle United’s fifth successive win in all competitions played out in a fairly uncontroversial manner at St James’ Park as Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United were dispatched with little fuss by the hosts. Despite being pegged back by Alejandro Garnacho after Tonali’s first half strike had put them ahead, a brace from Harvey Barnes and one from Bruno Guimaraes ensured yet another win for the Magpies over the Red Devils.

Dermot Gallagher’s Sandro Tonali verdict

Referee Chris Kavanagh was largely a bystander throughout the 90 minutes as he had very little to do, barring the prevention of an incident between Joelinton and Manuel Ugarte which threatened to boil over as the Brazilian was substituted. Joelinton avoided being shown a booking for that, meaning he has just one more game to survive without being booked to ensure he is not handed a two-match ban for picking up ten yellow cards.

The only other incident Kavanagh had to deal with on Sunday was a minor shout for a penalty for the visitors when Diogo Dalot fell to the ground after a challenge from Tonali. The shouts for a spot-kick were waved away by Kavanagh and speaking to Sky Sports Ref Watch, Gallagher backed the referee’s call in not pointing to the spot.

“No,” Gallagher responded when asked if he thought it should have been a penalty. “I think the other thing that makes it not a penalty is that he [Dalot] is slightly off balance and he’s actually slipping before he gets any contact from Tonali. He goes down there and Chris Kavanagh, who I thought refereed it really, really well, judges just that.”

Semi automated offside technology used in Premier League

For the first time ever this weekend, semi automated offside technology (SAOT) was used in the Premier League. The tech has been used in UEFA competitions ever since its implementation at the 2022 Qatar World Cup and had been trialled in the FA Cup.

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Newcastle United saw what they thought was a late winner against Brighton in that competition ruled-out by SAOT earlier this season with Joelinton’s very early opening goal on Sunday also chalked off for offside, with SAOT confirming the assistant’s decision of offside.

The technology wasn’t required following that moment at St James’ Park but played a big role in some of the weekend’s other Premier League matches, mainly at the Etihad Stadium as the tech confirmed the decision to rule-out a Crystal Palace goal that would have made it 3-0. For SAOT to work, up to 30 cameras have been installed in each Premier League stadium, with several capturing footage at 100 frames per second.

The cameras track the exact movement of the ball as well as up to 10,000 surface “mesh” data points per player – meaning the technology will track to see if any attacking player involved in the build-up to any incident was offside. These are then “flagged” automatically in the software to the VAR and SAOT operator.

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