What Chelsea’s Reece James did that ‘shocked’ England after replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold

Both Reece James and Mason Mount were in action once again on Saturday despite Chelsea’s season coming to an end against Watford two weeks ago.

The duo turned out for England as Gareth Southgate got the latest Nations League campaign underway against Hungary. Mount started the match while James replaced Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold after the hour mark.

But it was a disappointing display from the Three Lions with the hosts picking up a 1-0 win, with the only goal of the game coming from the penalty spot. Sadly for Chelsea fans it was James who conceded the spot-kick too, adjudged to have impeded Zsolt Nagy in the area.

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The referee pointed to the spot and Dominik Szoboszlai did the rest with a cool finish past Jordan Pickford. But there was plenty of questioning over whether or not the decision should have even been given in the first place with Conor Coady setting the tone when speaking to Channel 4 after the game.

“I was the same (perplexed), I think we all were the same,” Coady admitted after the game. “I think we were a little bit shocked at first, no one really appealed for the penalty. It’s one of them, I’ve not seen it back, don’t know where his arms are but I don’t know where they can go or what they can do.

“It’s disappointing to lose any game but to lose on a penalty that we don’t think is a penalty is massively disappointing. We need to look at ourselves, how we played, how we performed, how we’re going to move forward because these are big games and games you want to take big advantage of.”

England manager Gareth Southgate was equally baffled by the decision, adding in his post-match interview: “Once it’s been given, he’s not going to overturn it. You see challenges like that in the box, he’s just gone across to get his body between him and the ball – the forward makes a meal of it. Look, away from home sometimes you’re going to get those decisions.”