John Terry has labelled the decision to award Chelsea a penalty against Arsenal “harsh” after William Saliba handled a Mykhailo Mudryk header. The Blues came flying out of the blocks at Stamford Bridge in a London derby with Enzo Fernandez firing over early on after Conor Gallagher saw a close-range effort blocked.

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After a quarter of an hour, Chelsea were then handed a golden chance to take the lead after VAR recommended Chris Kavanagh to have a look at the pitchside monitor. The incident came when Mudryk met a Raheem Sterling cross ahead of Saliba with his header catching the stray arm of the Frenchman and thus a penalty was given which was then converted by Cole Palmer.

Liverpool saw a similar penalty awarded in their Merseyside Derby win over Everton with Michael Keane as the player handling the ball. The hand ball rule has changed on numerous occasions in recent years with it still unclear to some what actually constitutes an offence with the current wording from the FA and PGMOL saying as follows:

“It is an offence if a player touches the ball with their hand/arm when it has made their body unnaturally bigger. A player is considered to have made their body unnaturally bigger when the position of their hand/arm is not a consequence of, or justifiable by, the player’s body movement for that specific situation. By having their hand/arm in such a position, the player takes a rιsk of their hand/arm being Һit by the ball and being penalised.”

Despite Saliba going up for a header, which usually leads to both arms coming away from the body in an attempt to gain momentum and height, a penalty was still given. Chelsea legend Terry has now commented on the penalty with his verdict sympathising with Saliba.

On X (formerly Twitter), he wrote: “Delighted we got the Penalty but I don’t agree with the rules on this, very harsh on defenders. I would have been fuming if that was given against me back in the day. But happy now.”

Both Gary Neville and Gary Lineker have questioned the handball law after the controversial opinion to penalise William Saliba as the ball struck the Arsenal star’s arm against London rivals Chelsea.

One of those who disagreed with the call was Neville, who said on Sky Sports: “It hits William Saliba’s arm, there is no doubt about that. I think he could be in a little bit of bother here. Coming off the back of the Everton game earlier [vs Liverpool], I would sаy this is going to be given I would sаy.

“This is all about whether Saliba’s arm is there because he is trying to win the ball – it’s certainly above, out and away from his body. Is he just using that arm for leverage or to gain an advantage? The fact is it doesn’t matter. None of us are sure what a penalty is anymore but that is consistent with what we saw in the Merseyside derby today.”

Lineker also disagreed, taking to social media to sаy: “The handball law is uttеrly ludicrous.” It shows the general feeling of professionals and ex-professionals towards a law that may not suit how the game is actually played on the pitch.