Aston Villa will still be licking their wounds following their unforgettable trip to Belgium on Wednesday night.
Unai Emery’s side had won their opening three Champions League matches, but Aston Villa’s 1-0 defeat to Club Brugge brought all of that crashing down.
Before a ball was kicked, the starting XI made for interesting reading because Tyrone Mings was making his Champions League debut.
But just after the hour mark, he was being subbed off after having a game to forget following one of the most bizarre handballs you will ever see.
Mings innocently picked up the ball and gave it back to Emi Martinez during a goal kick, but it was deemed that when the ball was knocked to him, the ball was in play and, as a result, a penalty was awarded.
Brugge went on to score the penalty, Villa’s performance was lifeless, before and after that spot-kick, and they proceeded to lose their first match in the competition.
Paul Merson thinks ‘common sense’ should have been used after Tyrone Mings’ handball against Club Brugge
It has been well-documented that a similar incident occurred last season when Arsenal faced Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
At that time, no penalty was awarded and some felt that Gabriel was a lucky boy, but Mings had no such luck.
Paul Merson feels that the penalty shouldn’t have been awarded and ‘common sense’ should have been used instead, as he told Sky Sports News (06/11/24 at 10:10 am).
“It happened last year with Arsenal, didn’t it?!” said Merson. “It wasn’t like someone was just going to put the ball into the back of the net.
“It wasn’t like Mings was under severe pressure and someone was going to come then tap it into an empty net and he has sort of picked the ball up and played silly. I think common sense.
“There was a nice part in the game during Inter-Arsenal when Arteta was on the touchline and he went to pick the ball up, it spun and stayed on the pitch. The referee had to book him, in the end. But he had a laugh about it the ref and Arteta was apologetic. It was nice. Common sense. The ref didn’t come flying over. He sort of laughed at him and said ‘I have to do this, it’s the rules’. I think you could have had a bit of common sense”
Merson says ‘positive’ Mings has returned to action for Villa
Mings had been out of action for 14 months after suffering a serious knee injury on the opening day of the last campaign.
It has been a difficult road for the England international and he returned to action for the first time against Crystal Palace in the EFL Cup last month.
Some were surprised that Emery through him as a starter in a Champions League game, but Merson urged the player to see the ‘positive’ from his handball incident and the fact that he is back in action.
The former Aston Villa player stated that Mings can no longer do anything about his mistake and he just needs to move on, as he added on SSN.
“It’s one of them things, he can’t do anything about it now, can he anyway?” said Merson. “You can’t turn back time. No point sitting there today eating your breakfast thinking, ‘what have I done?’. It’s gone now. It’s gone.
“He has to look at the positive. Over a year ago, he was out for a long time and he has come back. Fought back, which is a hard injury to come back from, especially in this day and age with the Premier League. He should look at the positives.
“Okay, he made a mistake. But he didn’t mean to do it. It was just one of those lapses of concentration. Look at the positive side. Hopefully, he has to try and get into the team. That’s going to be the hardest thing for him. Trying to get into this Aston Villa side.”
