How did Guehi 'assist' allow Barry to score when offside?
Everton 's pulsating 3-3 draw with Manchester City was full of drama - late goals, a defensive calamity and, of course, a bit of video assistant referee (VAR) controversy. At the top of the list was Thierno Barry's first goal, with the Everton striker benefiting from being in an offside position thanks to a bizarre "assist" from City's Marc Guehi. Toffees boss David Moyes said he was "amazed" his side were not given a penalty when Bernardo Silva dragged down Merlin Rohl in the final five minutes.
And then there was the potential red card for Everton defender Michael Keane, flying into a challenge on Jeremy Doku. Paul Howard, the VAR, stayed out of all three decisions and left them with the on-field call of referee Michael Oliver. The assistant initially raised his flag for offside against Thierno Barry before referee Michael Oliver deemed the goal should be allowed to stand Barry was waiting on the shoulder of Guehi, weighing up when to make his move as Rohl played a through ball.
It was not a good pass by the German midfielder, straight to the feet of the Manchester City defender. While Barry had started to move towards Guehi, he was not placing the opponent under pressure. Inexplicably, Guehi under hit a back pass which Barry latched on to to score.
Barry was offside and the assistant raised his flag to disallow the goal initially, but he was quickly overruled by Oliver. The law asks a few key questions: Did Barry do anything which could have caused Guehi to rush, or to influence his poor pass? Barry did move towards the ball, but did that really impact Guehi?
And did Guehi have full expectation of a controlled outcome from playing the ball? "Barry is in an offside position when the ball is played but it's down to Guehi," former Manchester City and Everton defender Andy Hinchcliffe said on Sky Sports. "He is in control of his actions, so suddenly the attacker goes from offside to onside.