Shearer says: “I did not feel the Hazard incident was a penalty.”

Premier League legend discusses Arsenal v Chelsea

I thought the Eden Hazard penalty was a very difficult incident for the referee to call but we do have to get away from the idea that if there is contact, it is a foul.

Although there was contact here, I don’t think there was enough for him to go down in the way he did, so I did not feel it was a penalty.

The game has changed even from when I played 11 years ago. People will be split 50/50 as to whether they felt it was a penalty or not.

Differences of opinion

I covered the game for TV for the Premier League with Frank Lampard and he thought it was a penalty.

This is the problem we are going to have with VAR as often decisions like this are going to divide opinion.

People need to realise that, believe it not, football is a contact sport.

You are allowed to make contact with an opposition player. Hazard went down holding his ankle and he wasn’t even kicked on the ankle it was on the bottom of his foot.

But was that enough to make him fall over in the manner he did? No. Could he have stayed on his feet despite the contact? Yes.

There have been occasions where pundits have said a player should have gone down to get a penalty, but if a player isn’t forced over, it means there has not been enough contact to impede them.

Don’t get me wrong, I have been in dressing rooms where we have been encouraged to go down if there is any contact so I get all that.

We have seen several incidents over the last few days, like the Hazard one, where there has been contact and the player has gone down so easily.