Such a fast moving incident with the ball arriving at pace and two players converging.The referee with the naked-eye cannot know for definite if contact was made with the ball or the man, accordingly Mike Dean gesticulated that NO penalty was to be awarded.

For avoidance of doubt I haven't seen the incident several times - I just saw the coverage on 'Goals on Sunday'.

The point is that the referee didn't have the luxury of reviewing the incident several times in slow motion and he is the one that makes the decision.It is very difficult with the naked-eye to determine whether contact was made with the ball or man - either Mike Dean was convinced contact was made with the ball or he wasn't sure hence couldn't award the penalty.I suspect the latter.

Edited by Willo (12 Aug 2018 3.51pm)

The was it wasn’t it penalty incident reminded me of West Ham v palace with Hernandez going over Tomkins trailing leg last season and of course that one was given

I have watched this from all the angles presented and not one shows contact . Close but not clear enough to say penalty . The fact that the Fulham player was going nowhere anyway and was already on his way to ground makes me agree with you that Mike Dean was the only one who could call this and one of those where the referee is always right .
Was impressed with his general running of the game , didn't stop the game unless he had to and in all contributed to a very watchable match

And we still need a striker

I suspect that the camera's have a rather closer view but he made the decision on what he could see and believed to be the case.

I was watching tsn too. No way coukd you say there was definately cintact. Shearer tried very hard to show it on Motd by blowing the image up massively and it still wasn't conclusive. So don't know how dean could have given it.