Late on in the massive Premier League clash between Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur there was a moment that could prove crucial in the title race this season. Erik Lamela carrying the ball forward, he holds off a couple defenders long enough for Nicolas Otamendi to feel he needs to step up and close him down and as he does Lamela slips the ball between his legs and into the path of Christian Eriksen. The Danish playmaker (on his birthday) slips the ball past Joe Hart and gives Spurs perhaps the biggest three points of their season with a 2-1 win at the Etihad. City, meanwhile, sink to fourth and six points off top. Repercussions, man. Repercussions.

That came after Kelechi Iheanacho had gotten City back on level terms with twenty to play, a clever late run finding him the space to score after Gael Clichy had done some fine stuff out wide, linking with David Silva, to get that ball back across. Yet another goal for the 19 year old Nigerian.

It was an interesting game, carrying the weight of the occasion. Each side defended compact and neither attacked with much width – the real battle went on in the midfield and it was Dier/Dembele/Alli that had the better of Fernando/Fernandinho/Toure for the most part. Spurs with more possession, especially in the first half, while City looked a little more potent on attack. But that didn’t translate into finishing as Sergio Aguero and David Silva both found themselves uncharacteristically wasteful. City had their chances. They couldn’t take them, that’s the way it goes.

However they still had plenty to moan about when it came to Spurs’ first goal. City were far more energetic and dangerous after that goal, if anything it put a little impetus into a game that really needed it. Who’s to say how things would’ve been different without it – even the blandest 0-0 (which this was not) is only a moment away from mayhem. You’d rather that moment be something special though, and not a refereeing blunder.

Would you give this as a penalty? Because Mark Clattenburg did.

Next thing Harry Kane steps up and confidently buries it. I mean, the contact was inside the box, so the decision had that going for it. But Danny Rose has slammed that cross towards Raheem Sterling, who has turned his back on it and had the ball probably catch his elbow as he ducked his head out of firing range. It’s the kind of thing for which the commentators will usually bring out the old cliché: “we’ve seen them given before”, but that nobody’s ever really convinced was a penalty. Except that this one was.

If it hit his arm, and it probably did, it was at least simultaneous with it clattering into Sterling’s back. His head is facing the other way, he’s not watching it at all. But if you want to get pedantic, Spurs fans, then yeah it did most likely hit his arm at some stage. You can make a case for anything if you try hard enough.

It reminded me of a decision early on in the Sunderland vs Manchester United game. Morgan Schneiderlin was on the generous end of that call, the ref (Andre Marriner) waving play on. It was a similar situation, though Scheniders didn’t turn his back. His arm wasn’t quite against his side but it was close enough to where he clearly wasn’t doing anything deliberate. But if anything it was a better shout than the Sterling one. Neither should have been awarded.

You can pluck three or four of these every week and each time the attacking team is incensed not to be given it or the defending team is irate to have conceded it. Both are looking for an advantage in any way possible, it’s why diving exists, it’s why as a player even when you know it hit the dude’s torso you still turn and beg the ref for the favour. Such is the way it goes and there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s the ref’s job to filter the truthful from the fraudulent and for the most part they’re pretty damn good at it.

But not with handballs. What even is a handball anymore? Speaking on the Sterling one, colour commentator Jim Beglin said as much himself in the spur of the moment. “Some will say yes and some will say no. I’m kind of like that now, I don’t know what is and what isn’t these days”.

Here’s what FIFA’s Laws of the Game have to say about it. First off, it is a penalisable offence if a player: “handles the ball deliberately (except for the goalkeeper within his own penalty area)”. That’s a direct free kick or a penalty and it’s also a red card if it prevents a “goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity”. That’s under law 12. They expand upon this in a later chapter:

Handling the ball involves a deliberate act of a player making contact with the ball with his hand or arm. The referee must take the following into consideration:

• the movement of the hand towards the ball (not the ball towards the hand)
• the distance between the opponent and the ball (unexpected ball)
• the position of the hand does not necessarily mean that there is an infringement
• touching the ball with an object held in the hand (clothing, shinguard, etc.) counts as an infringement
• hitting the ball with a thrown object (boot, shinguard, etc.) counts as an infringement

That still doesn’t really clear it up, because what about accidental handballs that gain an advantage? Surely you can’t just dangle the arm out there like a bird and get away with a block. And it’s only human nature to try protect your face with your arm when a missile comes flying towards you. Self-protection is why Sterling turned in the first place, it was an instinctive reaction to prevent getting hit in the nuts.

What we’re moaning about is more Clattenburg’s interpretation of the laws, since as the City players complained you could see Clatts gesturing that the arm was raised. But it also fails the hand to ball vs ball to hand part of that definition. And while his arm was up, he didn’t know where the cross was heading – he just didn’t wanna get hit where it might hurt. Obviously his wasn’t deliberate either and that’s the main thing with how it’s written.

I get the ‘deliberate’ thing in that you can’t have guys chipping the ball at some player’s arm and winning a penalty that way. But my interpretation has always been: ‘did he gain an advantage, deliberately or not’.

FIFA don’t really like judgement calls, which is fair enough. Still, you can see a discrepancy there between what the law says and how the rule is officiated, which is where the ‘unnatural position’ thing comes into play. The first three of those definitions do suggest all that in a roundabout way. “Ball to hand, ref!” is the standard club battler call, turns out that’s covered in the rules. Same with the ‘unexpected ball’, which you always see on those close-marking ones. A cross is smashed at a dude from a metre away, there’s nothing he can do about it… so long as his arm isn’t in an unnatural position (though that in itself isn’t necessarily a problem, so the rules state). Maybe Diego Maradona didn’t deliberately thrust his hand at that ball in 1986 but you can’t leave it up there where the ball is and then plead innocent (pleading messianic status though, that’s all good).

Here’s Graham Poll clearing up the interpretation back in 2013:

“Regarding handball they now ask the referee to consider the proximity of the potential offender to the person last playing the ball, the speed of the ball and importantly whether the offender's arms are in a natural or unnatural position.

So the question of intent is now, did the offender deliberately place his arms in an unnatural position to increase the chances of the ball hitting him?

If the answer to that is yes then it is correct to penalise that player even though it used to be argued that was ball to hand.”

Presumably nothing’s changed. The main thing to take from this is that the ball making contact with someone’s arm is not illegal. It’s only illegal when it’s deliberate. Like this:

It’s such a dumb thing to get worked up over too because it’s so out of your control. It’s rare that a great bit of play is spoiled by an unintentional handball, it’s usually something incidental, hardly a reward for a clever bit of football and thus hardly something worth moaning about after a game that went the wrong way. Maybe blame the missed chances, if you were so dominant and still didn’t score. As an isolated situation though… yeah I think City fans have a reason to feel aggrieved.

A bit of extra controversy, Clattenburg was also in charge when Spurs beat City 4-1 earlier in the season – with two dubious decisions there leading to a couple of Tottenham goals, although they were both offside dramas so more the linesmen’s fault.

Manuel Pellegrini: “It was absolutely the wrong decision. It hit the back of Raheem Sterling then his elbow. Sterling was not even seeing the ball. It was the key moment that decided the game. Before that they did not shoot towards our goal and did not have any chances.”

Manny’s not wrong there about the game. Spurs hadn’t really looked like scoring before that moment, City appearing much more organised at the back with returning captain Vincent Kompany in there. He was a bit unfair when he also wailed on the appointment of Clattenburg after the last meeting. Clatts is one of the best refs in the world, regularly officiating in England’s biggest games. There’s nothing wrong with reffing two matches between the same teams.

Ah but he made the wrong call to award Spurs a penalty here. That I firmly believe. The problem with handballs is that nobody even knows what is and what isn’t one and that starts with the commentators and pundits who regularly get all up in arms about them. Not that you can really blame them. I just spent a day researching the rules and interpretations and I still don’t think I can definitively say why this wasn’t a penalty other than that I just don’t think it was one. You’ll have to trust me. What I saw was a ball that mostly hit a player on the back, with that player’s arm raised but not towards the ball. He was maybe five metres away from where the ball was struck and had his back turned. It certainly wasn’t deliberate contact, although it did block the cross. That’s what I saw. I’m not really sure what Mark Clattenburg saw, standing where he was.

Probably best just to let these ones slide from now on, mate.

P.S. This was the first penalty that City have given away in the Premier League all season. They were due.