Why Brendan Rodgers lies to protect his Leicester players

Of course, 0.75 of their xG is from a penalty, but still that is over two goals they were expected to score. Additionally, it was only thanks to Kasper Schmeichel’s heroism that Rodgers’ side had not already conceded at least two more goals before the dreadful situation leading up to Arsenal’s penalty.

LCFC’s Turkish defender put his arms high in the sky before realising where the ball was headed, in his mad dash to prevent a goal – where Luke Thomas was waiting to prevent it anyway – ‘Cags’ seemed to rush his way into a blocking position. Directly thereafter he realised he would handle the ball and tried to pull his hand away. The ball barely touched him yet there was contact upon replay; this gives the Video Assistant Referee no choice but to award or refer to the ref.

What Rodgers said and the truth

Any raised arms in the box where the player is not already in that position before the ball is kicked straight at them is a stonewall penalty and potential red card if they are judged to have blocked a goal. Luckily, Soyuncu did not block a goal as the English left back was there.

However, Cags still touched the ball with raised limbs. In that moment, it is merely that he did not realise where it was headed and was likely trying to throw some weight behind a swift move to block. Alas, it was too late when he noticed the ball was travelling towards his hand. A dismissal would have cost Leicester further as they would have lost the CB for three domestic matches.