Manual Assist. Manual Assist. Virgil van Dijk. Van Dijk’s cross/shot was parried by the Villa keeper to Matip – who scored. Aston Villa v Liverpool 10/05/2022
Manual Assist. Lucas Digne. Digne provided the cross to Douglas Luiz – whose initial header was saved by the keeper but poked in the rebound. As per our game guide, this means as assist for Digne. Aston Villa v Liverpool 10/05/2022
Manual Assist. Oleksandr Zinchenko. Zinchenko found De Bruyne whose pass to Sterling was parried by the keeper and he then gobbled up the rebound. As the last pass to the goalscorer was Zinchenko, assist is given. Wolves v Man City 11/05/22
Manual Assist. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall. Maddison’s goal was created by the keeper parrying Dewsbury-Hall’s cross into his path. Assist given. Leic v Norwich 11/05/22
Manual Assist. Heung-Min Son. Son was fouled for the penalty converted by Kane. Spurs v Arsenal 12/05/22
Manual Assist. Riyad Mahrez. Mahrez’s free kick was headed in to his own goal by Coufal. West Ham v Man City. 15/05/22
Manual Assist. Yoane Wissa. Wissa’s cross was diverted into his own net by Seamus Coleman. Everton v Brentford. 15/05/22
Manual Assist. Joelinton. Joelinton’s cross was diverted into his own net by Ben White. New v Arse 16/05/22
Manual Assist. Sean Longstaff. Longstaff’s through ball was parried by Ramsdale into the path of Bruno Guimaraes, who scored. New v Arsenal 16/05/22
Assists Not Given
Cancelo. City’s final goal was scored by Sterling. We have had a lot of queries as to why Cancelo did not get the assist. The Assist panel debated long and hard about this one as it was not a ‘clean pass’ as the defender got a touch on the ball before Sterling converted. Whenever the Opta feed does not give an assist for a goal, we look at the incident in question in great detail. With regards to Cancelo we looked at every TV angle available to us, and there is one on MoTD from Wednesday that shows why we did not award it. In our view, applying the game guide rules (see section under ‘scoring’ in that document), the fact it was not a clean pass had a large affect on the speed of the ball, which enabled Sterling to get to it by significantly speeding up. Our point of view is that these points merit no assist being awarded. We strive our best to be consistent, and the rules are there to be applied to ensure fairness across the season, but we appreciate that not everyone will be of the same opinion as to whether it was an assist or not. We now know how VAR officials feel!
