“That’s a penalty, There’s no world in which that isn’t a penalty, His arm’s out from his body, he’s making himself bigger, and the ball’s just falling to Chris Wood in the six-yard box”- Jamie Carragher slams VAR as he claims Forest should have been awarded penalty Vs Everton as Forest fans take to social media to react to controversial penalty call

Jamie Carragher claims Nottingham Forest ‘should have had a penalty’ after the ball hit Everton’s Ashley Young on the arm – but was judged to be in a ‘natural position’

Jamie Carragher claims Nottingham Forest should have had a first-half penalty against Everton after the ball struck Ashley Young on the arm. The decision was not given in favour of the visitors to Goodison Park because Young’s arm was judged to have been in a ‘natural position for the movement he was making’.

But Carragher strongly disagreed, and felt that it was a penalty for Forest.

He told Sky Sports at half-time: ‘No, that’s a penalty.

‘Listen, you can talk about close proximity, but VAR haven’t mentioned that. His arm’s out from his body, he’s making himself bigger, and the ball’s just falling there to Chris Wood in the six-yard box.

‘Ashley Young is very lucky and I think we’ll be hearing from Mark Clattenburg after the game.’ 

Many took to X (formerly Twitter) to express their opinions on the incident, and the failure of the VAR team to intervene.

One Forest fan wrote: ‘Stone wall peno from the hand ball!!!! Awful from var’. 

Another said: ‘VAR has no purpose. There’s no world in which that isn’t a penalty. Except for this one. Fair play to Anthony Taylor, he’s been fine. Whoever the VAR official is, as per, needs sacking. F disgrace.’ 

‘There was clear penalty for Nott’m Forest, VAR was awful not to give it. Disgusting officiating’ wrote another person watching the game at Goodison Park. 

It has been another weekend of hotly debated calls, following the Jack Grealish penalty or corner incident in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday evening.

‘Chelsea had a possible penalty/sure corner denied yesterday’, one X user wrote, adding: ‘VAR is a joke. And nothing but a bias system‘. 

Everton took a first-half lead through Idrissa Gueye just before the half-hour mark, and doubled their advantage when Dwight McNeil scored in the 76th minute.