I refereed professional football for 25 years. We were talking about handball when I started and it remains one of the most discussed topics in the game.

One reason for this is that we’ve had a number of law changes by the International Football Association Board (Ifab) over recent years. All were made in an effort to achieve consistent outcomes for the benefit of the game, but we can sometimes end up with different interpretations of the laws.

There were two handball shouts in the biggest match of the weekend: Manchester United’s visit to Arsenal, overseen by the experienced referee Craig Pawson, who managed the game very well. He didn’t get involved unless he really had to, he let play flow and he’s rightly received plaudits for that. At the end, everyone was talking about the game, not the referee, and that’s all you can really ask for.

The biggest shout involved Harry Maguire, whose arm stopped Mikel Merino’s shot in the area when United were 2-1 up. I didn’t think this was a handball offence. Maguire was going to ground making a challenge and his outstretched arm was there as support. He didn’t make his body unnaturally bigger; it was a normal action. Where do you expect him to put his arm otherwise?

The decision was correctly made on the field by Pawson and checked very quickly by the video assistant referee, Paul Tierney. It didn’t look like a penalty kick or feel like a penalty kick, especially in accordance with the laws of the game.

It’s the same when you look at Patrick Dorgu in the run-up to his goal. People were trying to look for a handball when there wasn’t one. The ball touches his thigh and not his arm as he takes it into his stride. There’s no evidence to suggest it was handball and a good goal was quite rightly allowed.

Darren England was the referee for Crystal Palace’s home fixture against Chelsea and awarded a penalty for handball, with an interpretation we don’t see very often. The Palace defender Jaydee Canvot clearly stopped a João Pedro shot from going in with his arm. From his position, England probably can’t see the handball. The VAR, Matt Donohue, does and recommends a review. England then reviews at the monitor, awards a penalty for an accidental handball and gives a yellow card to Canvot.

This has created a bit of noise because we don’t see it very often. When the officials deem a player has denied the opposing team a goal or an obvious goalscoring opportunity by a non-deliberate handball, the referee should award a penalty and a yellow rather than a red card, which has been the case since before the 2024-25 season. This is what England did.

Farai Hallam made his debut as a Premier League referee on Saturday and what a day he had. He refereed Manchester City’s match against Wolves really well. The biggest incident was another potential handball, this time by the Wolves defender Yerson Mosquera. The ball struck his outstretched left arm as Omar Marmoush tried to scoop it behind him. Hallam left it alone, but the VAR felt it was a handball offence and recommended a review.

You can see, as Mosquera is running, that his arms are where you would expect them to be and the ball strikes him close to the elbow. Hallam went to the monitor and stayed with his on-field decision and I agree with him.

What I really liked was that Hallam, even though it was his first Premier League game, took his time. He is a product of the Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) development group, formed as part of the elite referee development programme, and a former academy footballer with Stevenage who played professionally in England and Spain.

Handball will always cause debate and discussion, but in the Premier League we are seeing a mature approach to the laws owing to PGMO’s high-threshold approach. I can recall only a handful of decisions this season where people have been penalised for it. There’s generally an acceptance within the English game when it comes to the agreed position on how to interpret this law.

In different competitions around the world you will see a different interpretation, including in Uefa competitions such as the Champions League where handball is judged much more literally. But I’m a little bit old-fashioned: I want a handball to be clear. I don’t want to have to persuade you, I want people to see it and say: that’s a handball. Think Thierry Henry for France against the Republic of Ireland.

That’s how I want it, but you have situations where the ball can strike anywhere in the penalty area on any part of the body and everybody appeals.

Chris Foy is a former Premier League referee