Keith Hackett blasts Aston Villa star who cheated vs Brighton, wants PGMOL to act
Aston Villa defender Ian Maatsen has been branded a cheat following his side’s victory over Brighton.
Villa went behind to an early Jan Paul van Hecke goal, and seemed to be in real trouble when Pau Torres poked the ball into his own net.
However, Ollie Watkins slid home to halve the deficit before then levelling the scores with a smart finish just before the break.
Unai Emery’s side pulled away in the second period with Amadou Onana and Donyell Malen putting them into a 4-2 lead.
Van Hecke grabbed his brace with a strike from the edge of the box to set up a grandstand finish, but Villa managed to hold on.
PGMOL should’ve punished Ian Maatsen
With Brighton leading 2-0 in the first half, Villa full-back Maatsen drove into the box before going down under the challenge of Carlos Baleba.
The incident was checked and cleared by VAR, who determined that there had not been enough contact to award a penalty.
However, Keith Hackett believes that Maatsen should’ve faced punishment for going to ground so easily.
Speaking exclusively to Villa News, the ex-PGMOL chief insisted that referee Andy Madley should’ve booked the 23-year-old.
Hackett said: “Once again, we see a player going to ground in a clear act of simulation, attempting to deceive the referee. The Referee and VAR were correct in not awarding a penalty kick.
“Surely PGMOL in these situations, the law should be applied to the player who has attempted to deceive you.
“Do what referee Sam Barrott did in his game at the weekend and pull out the yellow card.”
Barrott booked Hannibal Mejbri for simulation on Saturday, during Burnley’s 3-1 defeat to Brentford.
Aston Villa on the wrong side of refereeing decisions
While there was not enough contact on Maatsen for the referee to award a penalty, Aston Villa still felt hard done by at the time, considering other decisions in the game.
Brighton opened the scoring from a corner, centre-back Jan Paul van Hecke bundling home, but there was an element of controversy about the goal.
The corner itself should never have been awarded, as the ball came off Maxim De Cupyer before going out of play.
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