Arsenalhad some justification for feeling aggrieved after they squandered another point on Saturday, this time in a 1-1 home draw with Brentford. For years, the Premier League has been determined by the slimmest of margins; whether it may be goal difference or point difference.
The gap between the reigningwinner Manchester City and the runners-up Liverpool was only one point. That’s why,as Jurgen Klopp’s floundering squad is learning in the middle of the league, opportunities to win the championship are rare.
As a result, the 1-1 draw between table leaders, MikelArteta’s sideand Brentford sparked an angry response when the refereeing authority admitted that “human error” had allowed theequalizer to stand.
Why didn’t VAR rule that Brentford’s equalizer against Arsenal was offside?
A win for the Gunners would have taken them eight points ahead of their nearest Premier League rivals, Manchester City,but in the 74th minute, Christian Norgaard ofBrentford headed the ball back across the box to Ivan Toney, who calmly slotted it into the empty goal.
When VAR was used to determine whether or not Norgaard was in an offside position,it was not ruled offside because referee Lee Mason’s lines weren’t drawn at the correct time.It’s possible that this error might have a significant negative effect on Arsenal’s chances of winning the Premier League.
If VAR lines had been used, the goal scored by Ivan Toney would have been disallowed because Christian Norgaard was out of the offensive zone when he made the assist. “VAR was looking to see if there was offside and whether Ethan Pinnock had blocked off Gabriel in the build-up. He looked at the possible foul and decided there hadn’t been one and therefore referee Peter Bankes hadn’t made a clear and obvious error.
“However, in the build-up to the goal, Christian Norgaard – whose cross Toney heads in – is in an offside position. However, the truth is that VAR didn’t fully investigate the lines. The lines, simply, didn’t go down. And that counts as human error. Had the lines gone down the goal would have been disallowed for offside”, theProfessional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) representative Chris Foy told Daily Mail.
