I've looked at the incident time and time again. If there is any contact at all it is Wilf outside the box and that is minimal. Cahill withdraws his leg before Grealish goes to ground.

What the ref saw was Grealish going down easily on 3 or more occasions during the match which probably influenced his decision to call the free kick for simulation.

It is irrelevant whether the ball goes in the net as the ref has already blown his whistle. The fact it did go into the net is why the pundits are blaming VAR for not intervening. The only time I could see VAR coming into play on this passage of play was if they could clearly see Cahill bring down Grealish which would then mean a penalty. You cannot allow a goal to stand regardless of VAR if the whistle has been blown as this signifies a stoppage in play and will have been heard by the players which then, may or may not influence how they challenge for the ball. In this instance I don't think hearing the whistle would have stopped the shot or the goal, but that is not the point, the play has been stopped.

The VAR would have reviewed the challenge by Cahill and taken the same view as the ref that he did not make contact and therefore it was a reasonable decision by the ref to blow up against Grealish for simulation.

At the end of the day this is one of those decisions that can go against you just as easily as it goes for you. I am pleased that we have had the rub of the green against both Utd and now Villa as we had our fair share of poor calls last year.

Just my take on it but I thought Lineker and Co were bang out of order on MOTD last night.

Villa can feel unjust all they want, but why the feck did they bring on a striker for a midfielder when they went down to 10? To me that shows disrespect, and the fact they conceded on the counter shows how naive a decision that was.

Like Fulham They've spent loads thinking they'll walk in to the top 10. This league doesn't favour teams with that mentality, and I thought they were bang average yesterday. Had they walked away with a point it would've been a travesty.

If punk ever happened I'd be preaching the law, instead of listenin to Lydon lecture BBC4

I think that was a massive influence on the refs decision and so already the case. I’d like to know had the whistle not gone and no goal would grealish have appealed for a pen?

Also, may obviously seem biased, given we had the majority of decisions in fast half, but I thought both Grealish and McGinn were going down far too easily all afternoon.

Now Zaha's got a bit of green grass ahead of him here... and finds Ambrose... not a bad effort!!!!

Agreed very disappointed in him yesterday

Honestly some people defending the ref are deluded. I’m so happy we got the call as we deserved the win 100% but we got lucky. If it was on the other foot and zaha had been pushed when running at speed and booked, we’d be absolutely fuming.

Everyone saying there is no contact with Cahill, why did Cahill spin around and drop to the floor holding his leg if there is no contact.

Yes we deserved the win, yes I’m happy with the call, but be honest, the ref made an error that we benefited from.

Spot on. I though it looked like Greasylish deliberately flung his leg out to make contact.

Edited by NickinOX (01 Sep 2019 12.53pm)

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.