Son Heung-min (£9.8m) will no longer get his controversial assist for Tottenham Hotspur’s third goal in their win over West Ham United – and Fantasy Premier League (FPL) have explained why.
THE GOAL
A mix up at the back for West Ham and Tottenham have a two-goal cushion in the blink of an eye 💥
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/pelvQupiFO
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) October 19, 2024
THE CONTROVERSY
Initially, a ‘TBC’ went out on FPL’s usual goal alert.
Then, after the Premier League deemed that Alphonse Areola (£4.5m) – and not Jeanclair Todibo (£4.4m) – was responsible for the telling touch, FPL announced no assist.
All sorted? Not quite.
There was still time for another twist on Saturday, with Son given the assist several hours after full-time in north London. FPL subsequently deleted their post announcing this.
Now, well over 48 hours after the conclusion of the game, we have a final resolution: Areola own-goal, no assist.
Following a review of Spurs’ third goal against West Ham on Saturday, no Fantasy assist will be awarded to Son Heung-min and all points will update accordingly before the Gameweek ends.
More information on the decision can be found here 👇
— Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) October 21, 2024
WHY WAS THE DECISION TAKEN TO GIVE NO ASSIST?
FPL have published a detailed article highlighting the thought process behind the decision.
The key lines were these:
“Shot rebounds can be rewarded with an assist in Fantasy if a goal is scored directly from the block, save or rebound off the woodwork. This ruling also applies to own goals.
“If a significant touch is made by an opposition player after the blocked effort, then no assist is awarded.”
– Why Son’s Fantasy assist against West Ham is being removed
For Son to have been awarded the assist, the last significant touch would have needed to come off Todibo. As with previous examples given in the article, it would then have counted as a shot rebound own-goal.
But the last significant touch was by Areola—as he was credited with the own-goal—and that ruled out the assist.
The reason it wasn’t a clear-cut decision is that the rebound off Todibo was goalbound—and normally that would result in him being credited with the own-goal.
The fact that it wasn’t a Todibo own-goal is due to a relatively unknown rule in Premier League goal accreditation guidelines.
HOW OWN GOALS ARE AWARDED
Normally, when a goalkeeper makes a failed save following a goalbound defender touch, the goalkeeper isn’t credited with the own-goal. We saw an example of this on Saturday when Issa Diop (£4.5m) diverted Lucas Digne’s (£4.6m) cross past his own goalkeeper, Bernd Leno (£5.0m).
Leno did get a nick on it but it didn’t matter because the ball was already heading in. Therefore Diop own-goal, Digne assist.
We could contrast this with the Hugo Lloris own-goal in the 2022/23 season when Saka’s cross deflected off Ryan Sessegnon before being turned in by Lloris. The important difference is that after deflecting off Sessegnon the ball was heading off-target, so the touch from Lloris was crucial to the own-goal.
Saka wasn’t given an assist as his cross did not directly force the own-goal, unlike Digne’s.
So why was Todibo not awarded the own-goal?
It’s all to do with how own-goals are credited following a rebound.
Once an on-target shot is turned off-target, only to then be diverted into the net, it’s the player who got the last touch that is awarded the own-goal.
As the Premier League wrote in their article explaining the award of the own-goal to Areola:
The [Premier League’s Goal Accreditation Panel]’s guidelines say that if the initial strike is on target and the ball is then deflected by an opposing player sending it off target and then deflects off another defending player before entering the goal, then the defending player who touched the ball last is credited with the own goal.
– Why Spurs’ third goal v West Ham was given as an Areola own goal
It’s slightly clumsy wording, but when they say “the ball is then deflected by an opposing player sending it off target” in this case they mean the Areola’s initial save. The ball then deflects off two players before entering the goal, the last touch is from Areola. Therefore, Areola was awarded the own-goal.
The reason Son was incorrectly awarded the assist over the weekend is that the final touch from Areola was not deemed significant from a Fantasy point of view, as the rebound off Todibo was goalbound—the ball would have gone in without the touch from Areola.
However, because of the Premier League’s decision to credit Areola with the own-goal, Fantasy had to fall in line and recognise the final touch from Areola as significant.
HOW MANY POINTS WILL SON HAVE NOW?
Son will finish on eight points now, down from 12. He will lose three points for an assist and one of his two bonus points.
WHEN WILL THE POINTS CHANGES BE MADE IN FPL?
FPL say all points will be updated before the Gameweek ends, which is approximately one hour after the final match of the round.
So that’ll be around 23:00 BST on Monday evening after the conclusion of Nottingham Forest v Crystal Palace.
