The Premier League issued a cryptic statement on Saturday night after Aston Villa were controversially denied a first-half penalty during their dramatic 2-1 loss to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.
Villa had taken the lead through Jhon Duran’s stunning strike from outside the box, but late goals from Nikola Milenković and Anthony Elanga sealed a thrilling comeback for the hosts.
The controversy arose in the 34th minute when Forest’s Morgan Rodgers appeared to be brought down inside the penalty area by Elliot Anderson.
Referee Michael Oliver waved play on, and despite a VAR review, no penalty was awarded.
According to BBC Sport, VAR deemed Anderson’s challenge a “fleeting grab” that wasn’t sufficient to “prevent the player from playing the ball.”
The Premier League’s Match Centre later issued a statement on X, explaining the decision: “The referee’s call of no penalty for the challenge by Anderson on Rogers was checked and confirmed by the VAR.”
Former Aston Villa midfielder Lee Hendrie strongly disagreed with the decision. He argued:
“Once Rogers gets in the box you can clearly see there’s a real tug [from Anderson] as he gets by him. He gets hold of him and then he yanks him back which means he loses his footing. For me, it’s a penalty.”
The Match Centre, which provides live updates from the VAR hub at Stockley Park, also addressed another incident in the second half.
Chris Wood thought he had equalised for Forest in the 81st minute, but VAR ruled that Anthony Elanga was offside in the build-up, disallowing the goal.
A statement read: “The referee’s call of goal was checked by the VAR, who determined that Elanga was in an offside position in the build-up. The goal was then disallowed.”
Despite the setback, Forest rallied late on. Milenković equalised in the 87th minute, and Elanga secured all three points for the hosts with a dramatic winner in stoppage time.
