The key issue is simple enough. Was the handball offence inside the box, or just outside it?
When the contact is described as being “right on the edge of the box”, the margin is tiny. In those moments, officials are judging:
That explains why pundits such as Curtis Davies and Jobi McAnuff were discussing it afterwards. A call on the line is effectively a call in the area, but if the offence started outside, Blackburn would feel they had every right to be aggrieved.
From the Wolves view, the case is straightforward: the referee saw a punishable handball and pointed to the spot, and Jimenez converted under pressure. Reports also say it was a handball offence rather than a softer collision or minimal shirt pull, which matters because handball decisions tend to hinge on position and location rather than interpretation of physical contact.
Wolves will also argue that late drama should not reduce a decision’s legitimacy. A stoppage-time penalty is still a penalty if the offence is there.
For Blackburn, the frustration is obvious. They had already hit back through Sean McLoughlin and then gone in front through Andri Gudjohnsen, so to lose control of the result on a marginal call will sting. Edge-of-box decisions are among the hardest to accept because they sit in that narrow space between a free-kick and a penalty.
The debate will not disappear quickly, but that is often the price of an opening-day game decided by a fine judgment. What matters now is how both sides respond in their next fixture - and whether the performance gets discussed as much as the whistle.