Jeff Stelling defends Chris Kavanagh’s Aston Villa vs Newcastle performance – assistants were ‘shameful’
talkSPORT presenter Jeff Stelling has defended Chris Kavanagh’s refereeing performance in Aston Villa’s FA Cup loss to Newcastle, and is pointing the finger at his assistants instead.
Aston Villa were defeated 3-1 by Newcastle in the FA Cup fourth round on Saturday, ending their dreams of lifting the famous trophy for the first time since 1957.
However, it was a cup clash surrounded in controversy, as referee Chris Kavanagh was at the centre of plenty of debate and fan frustration for a number of decisions he made at Villa Park.
Those were largely against Newcastle too, as Tammy Abraham’s opening goal should’ve been ruled out for offside, whilst Lucas Digne should’ve been penalised for a handball in the box and was lucky to not be shown a red card for a foul on Jacob Murphy.
As it happened, Newcastle didn’t let Kavanagh and his team’s decisions against them define the result, as they rallied to win comfortably, but much of the fallout from the game has been focused on the man in the middle.
What did Jeff Stelling say about Chris Kavanagh and officials?
Aston Villa can’t have too many complaints from Saturday, as they were beaten by a better Newcastle team on the day and were helped considerably by the officiating team too.
However, even Villa supporters must be feeling frustrated with the officiating performance they saw from Kavanagh and his team, as no football fan wants to becoming away from a match talking about the referee.
There is always debate around the standard of officials, and performances such as the one seen at Villa Park on Saturday only serves to heat it up even further.
And, speaking via talkSPORT on Monday, Stelling feels as though Kavanagh shouldn’t be getting as much stick as he’s been getting, with more of the blame lying with his officials.
“Chris Kavanagh’s taking a lot of stick here, I’ll point the finger at his assistants instead,” said Stelling.
“Their efforts were shameful really. And I’m quite sure that if you go right from the first goal, the Tammy Abraham goal, it’s clearly offside. Put your flag up.
“But of course, they are taught not to do that in the Premier League, and I’m sure in the back of their minds they’re thinking: ‘VAR will come in and tell us whether I was right or wrong here’ – no it won’t! Put your flag up!
“I think Chris Kavanagh should’ve been able to see himself that the handball was inside the box, but the assistants certainly should’ve done.
“I mean, I think that VAR has meant that levels of officiating are now at the lowest that they’ve ever been in this country.”
Aston Villa must channel the positives of FA Cup exit
Now out of the FA Cup, Aston Villa can solely focus on their Premier League and Europa League campaigns respectively.
As such, less fixture congestion should give Unai Emery the chance to keep his players fresh, and potentially boost their chances of winning the Europa League and staying in the Premier League title race.
Both Arsenal and Man City progressed into the fifth round, and that presents at least one less opportunity for both Mikel Arteta and Pep Guardiola to get more rest into their respective squads.
It was always going to be hard to compete on all fronts for the duration of the season, and now Villa can hone in on making sure they finish their Premier League campaign strongly, and go deep into the Europa League.
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