Ref Watch: Dermot Gallagher assesses Premier League incidents at Everton, Chelsea, Aston Villa and more

Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher is back to assess the controversial moments from the weekend’s action.

Chelsea 1-1 Nottingham Forest

INCIDENT: Forest’s Neco Williams pushed Marc Cucurella into Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca which sparks a melee. Williams and Cucurella are booked plus Levi Colwill.

DERMOT SAYS: “When you see that situation, you pick out what you can with your colleagues and VAR. If there’s anything left the FA will intervene afterwards.”

Everton 0-0 Newcastle

INCIDENT: VAR intervened to award Newcastle the penalty that was missed by Anthony Gordon when spotting a foul off the ball by James Tarkowski on Sandro Tonali inside the box.

DERMOT SAYS: “If you wrestle somebody to the ground like this, and the VAR spots it, you cannot unsee that as an official.”

It’s indefensible. Tarkowski will look at that and think ‘Why have I done it?’. For someone so experienced, I couldn’t believe he did it.”

INCIDENT: Dominic Calvert-Lewin was convinced he should’ve been awarded a penalty after a tangle with Dan Burn but referee Craig Pawson waved it away and VAR didn’t deem it an obvious error.

DERMOT SAYS: “Dan Burn has been clever, he’s put his foot across to protect the ball and Calvert-Lewin has kicked him in the back of the leg rather than the other way around.”

Aston Villa 0-0 Man Utd

INCIDENT: Marcus Rashford, already on a yellow card, fouls Leon Bailey. Should the Man Utd forward have been sent off?

DERMOT SAYS: “What saves him is Dalot, who comes and sweeps the ball up. The argument is he’s not breaking a promising attack. He gets a little bit lucky because the ball is running out.”

Crystal Palace 0-1 Liverpool

INCIDENT: Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi is pulled back by Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk in the box. Should it have been a penalty?

DERMOT SAYS: “Two things they’ve worked on this season is that it’s got to be sustained holding and it’s got to have impact. They felt that it had no impact because it wouldn’t go to Guehi.”

Arsenal 3-1 Southampton

INCIDENT: Gabriel Martinelli scores for Arsenal but Mikel Merino, in an offside position, jumps towards the ball before it’s turned in. He is deemed not to be interfering with play. Should the goal have been ruled out?

DERMOT SAYS: “Merino can’t ever play the ball, it’s so far above him. It’s quite rightly given as a goal.”

Portsmouth 1-1 Oxford

INCIDENT: In the EFL there was a serious incident in Portsmouth’s game against Oxford. Bhupinder Singh Gill reported an alleged discriminatory comment made from the stands. Referee Lewis Smith paused the game. What is the procedure here?

Dermot says: “The first thing to say is that this is totally out of order. You can’t have this. Zero tolerance.

“Once it is reported to the referee, he goes and sees the match commander, reports it and asks for it to be identified.

“If they can identify the area, contain it, and then hopefully that will get rid of it. If it doesn’t get rid of it then you escalate it up to the point where, if it goes to be far and it can’t be sorted, you end up with the game abandoned.

“That is the last resort, which you don’t want.”