A furious Howard Webb has apparently summoned all Premier League officials to Stockley Park after VAR’s worst weekend. The PGMOL chief will dress down referees and VAR operators for several failings, including a potentially crucial error in Arsenal’s clash with Brentford.
VAR official Lee Mason is likely to receive the wrath of Webb for his part in Arsenal dropping points on Saturday. Meanwhile, Brighton were wrongly denied a goal against rivals Crystal Palace. Express Sport looks at the seven worst VAR errors of the season.
Arsenal robbed against Brentford
Webb was a busy man on Saturday evening, writing apologies to two Premier League clubs for farcical decisions. The most decisive of those might have come at the Emirates Stadium, where Arsenal were leading Brentford until Ivan Toney prodded home late on.
After a lengthy VAR check, the goal was allowed to stand. However, it has since emerged that VAR official Mason had drawn the lines in the wrong place. Christian Norgaard, who headed on a cross for Toney, was clearly offside.
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Brooks outdoes Mason as Brighton suffer
John Brooks might meet up with Mason at the meeting, be shown the latter’s mistake, and declare: “Hold my beer.”
Pervis Estupinan thought he had given Brighton the lead in a tense clash against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. All looked fine until Brooks started drawing the offside line – except at the wrong defender.
The lines were drawn with James Tomkins – who would go on to equalise after Solly March’s opener – as the last defender. But Marc Guehi was a good yard behind his defensive partner. The goal was disallowed and Brighton have since received an apology.
So bad was the error that there was little focus on an early challenge by Alexis Mac Allister that saw the World Cup winner fortunate to remain on the pitch.
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Scamacca handles
Gianluca Scamacca handled the ball not once but twice before dinking home against Fulham in October. The West Ham striker’s luck was in as he bagged his sixth goal in 11 outings.
VAR took an age to glance over the incident but allowed the goal to stand. Fulham boss Marco Silva fumed after his side’s 3-1 defeat.
Cucurella has hair tugged
In a full-throttle London derby in August, fans had their first glimpse of the VAR errors that were to come. With Chelsea leading 2-1 and then-boss Thomas Tuchel heading towards an important win, Cristian Romero appeared to pull Marc Cucurella’s hair in the build-up to the equalising goal.
The letter of the law says Romero should have seen red for violent conduct. But VAR official Mike Dean did not even advise the on-field referee to award a free kick and allowed the goal to stand. Dean later admitted his error.
Martinelli denied
In another display of United benefitting from the technological mishaps, Arsenal were denied an opening goal as they eventually succumbed to their first defeat of the season at Old Trafford. Gabriel Martinelli finished a slick counter-attack, but VAR rather pettily chalked off the goal for a challenge by Martin Odegaard in the build-up.
The issue? Odegaard had seemingly won the ball. Clear and obvious error, it was not. Officials were told of six errors in the first half of the season at a PGMOL meeting over the World Cup break – this was one.
Chelsea and West Ham debacle
VAR was embroiled in controversy in both fixtures between Chelsea and West Ham this season. The worst incident was in the Stamford Bridge affair in September.
David Moyes labelled the technology “scandalous” and admitted he had lost faith in VAR after Maxwel Cornet saw a goal disallowed. Blues goalkeeper Edouard Mendy appeared to drop the ball before colliding with a West Ham player – but VAR judged that the contact was enough to award Chelsea a free kick.
Chelsea might argue that the debacle was evened out by the failure to award the Blues a penalty on Saturday after Tomas Soucek’s handball.
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