Home and Away | New offside rule creates more confusion than clarity in Premier League
Bournemouth fans feel cheated after Christian Benteke's controversial goal for Liverpool that usually would have been disallowed under the amended ruling
A bane watching football from a stadium seat is the offside know-it-all who spends most of the 90 minutes correcting anyone who dares question a ref's or flag-waving linesman's decision.
Claim that a player is offside, and this anorak will announce to all and sundry he was not; claim the opposite and he will pipe up with a contradictory correction.
It is with dread, then, that we take our seats this weekend because the wiseacres are bound to be out in force and extra voluble after the controversial Christian Benteke goal that sunk south coast minnows Bournemouth 1-0 at Anfield on Monday night.
The new rule is causing the very confusion it was supposed to stamp out
The Belgian's strike has once more plunged the offside rule into controversy and likely heralded another season of wrong scorelines and disgruntlement. Benteke poked home from close range after a cross fell to him at the far post.
Running back from an offside position as this cross sailed over was Benteke's teammate, Philippe Coutinho, who suddenly changed direction and also darted for the ball.
Coutinho failed to connect, but his presence meant Bournemouth keeper Artur Boruc could not commit to stopping Benteke at the far post and instead had to hedge his bets, remaining on his goal line.
Last season, the goal would have stood because players have previously been allowed to be in offside positions if they were not an "active" part of play; to be offside, a player had to touch the ball, thus Coutinho would have been judged as having not interfered with play.