Saints legend surprised with referee’s huge Paul Onuachu decision in 3-2 defeat

Coming on the back of a comeback 3-1 away defeat to Mikel Arteta's Arsenal, Southampton’s second half defensive performance was lacklustre again as they couldn't manage to hold on to their 2-0 lead. While the Saints struggled to keep up with the dribbling and playmaking abilities of jet-heeled forward Abdul Fatawu Issahaku, Russell Martin’s side could still have managed to take a 3-2 win from the match.

This is because Leicester City were awarded a penalty in the final fifteen minutes of the match, which seemed to be a surprising decision for the Southampton fans. Their surprise at the referee awarding a penalty due to Vardy being pulled down stems from the fact that the Saints were denied a penalty for a similar situation when Paul Onuachu was also pulled inside the Leicester City box.

Saints legend surprised with referee’s huge Paul Onuachu decision in comeback 3-2 defeat

These two situations were very similar but Leicester City were awarded the spot-kick while Russell Martin’s side weren't, and this turned out to be a huge turning point in the match. Firstly, Onuachu was pulled down inside the box when the Saints were leading 2-1, and the home side could have taken a two-goal lead again with a penalty to lead 3-1. Moreover, Leicester City would also have been down to ten players as Jordan Ayew would have received a red card.

Further, even if Leicester City later scored their penalty, Southampton would have a 3-2 lead with both teams playing with ten players. Secondly, Ayew scored the match-winning 3-2 goal for the visitors and if he would have received the red card for pulling Onuachu, Leicester City may not have found the back of the net for the third time in the match.

Thus, a lot of Southampton’s legends and fans were surprised by these two different decisions and former Saints forward Alan Shearer expressed his thoughts on Southampton’s denied penalty, saying,

"Absolutely, the word we’re hearing is Anthony Taylor saw the holding but it was with no consequence. It was deemed he was not impacting play.

He’s got hold of him for about five seconds which means he has to be impacting play. There has to be a consequence."

- Alan Shearer

This is the second consecutive Premier League fixture where Southampton faced a surprising decision, which again resulted in Russell Martin’s side facing another comeback defeat. However, this is the seventh league defeat for the Saints, and another match which highlighted Southampton's defensive struggles after conceding the first goal in the match.