Furious MOTD pundit Alan Shearer labels handball rule an 'absolute joke' after controversial penalties at Kenilworth Road

Former Newcastle United and England striker Alan Shearer blasted the handball rule as an ‘absolute joke’, with ex-Arsenal defender Martin Keown also heavily critical of VAR over the two penalties that were awarded during Luton’s 3-1 defeat to Sheffield United on Saturday.

With 36 minutes gone and the visitors leading 1-0, a corner was sent into the box by Gustavo Hamer and met by the impressive Vini Souza, his header hitting the outstretched arm of Reece Burke before being collected by keeper Thomas Kaminski. Not one player appealed for the spot-kick as the game was allowed to continue before referee Chris Kavanagh halted proceedings after being sent to the screen by the officials in Stockley Park. On viewing the incident again, he opted to award the penalty which was then tucked away by James McAtee to double the visitors’ lead.

Speaking on Match of the Day after the game, Keown, who won the Premier League three times with the Gunners, said: “I just don’t get this to be honest. Reece Burke, if we look at it here, not a single player is complaining, saying it’s handball. It’s completely out of kilter with what the expectation of the players are. How you’re supposed to get out of the way of this, the proximity there is just ridiculous and you are landing. To say that’s not a natural position to be in is ridiculous. Who are they asking by the way? As your arm has to come up to rebalance, so that’s ridiculous. The good thing was perhaps they were both really poor and once cancelled another out."

As Keown stated, that wasn’t the end of the controversy as seven minutes into the second period, an Alfie Doughty set-piece saw Elijah Adebayo win his aerial battle and the ball brush the hand of Souza, who was facing the wrong way, with a few half-hearted called by players and supporters for a handball, although they were more in hope than expectation. Once more play continued until it was stopped, Kavanagh instructed to make his way over to the pitch-side monitor, pointing to the spot for a kick that Carlton Morris tucked home.

The call incensed Shearer, who was alongside Keown on the BBC show, as he said: “If you think the first one is a bad one, have a look at this one. Honestly, it’s an absolute joke of a decision, I really think he thinks the VAR has given the first one so he’s going to even it up for the second one, he’d better give that one. How on earth does he think that’s handball? It’s a crazy decision. The handball law as we know is an absolute joke. You’re hearing manager every single week and players saying we just don’t know what handball is anymore? These are the same guys, who are making the handball law, Ifab, who actually may want to bring blue cards in for sin-bins, do me a favour man, honestly."

Keown also felt that Kavanagh should have been strong enough to stick with his initial thoughts of no penalty, saying: “He’s under huge pressure to give it. It would be nice to see him stick to his guns there and just make the decision. I don’t think VAR was designed to intervene in this manner.”

With the Blades going on to score again late on through man of the moment Souza, earning a first away win of the season, Shearer believed the defeat was a body blow for the Hatters, who had been on a three game unbeaten run in the league, as they missed the chance to pull further away from the bottom three. He added: “(It’s) Huge. They would think with the form they've been in, the belief that they've got, they would have looked at this game thinking if they get three points it would have been huge for their season and for them to stay up.”