When VAR has introduced in the Premier League four years ago (all clubs voted for it), it was expected that the most important sport would be upgraded and the ‘hand of God’ goals-like will be a thing of the past. After all, similar technology has been used in NFL in America, and it works (almost) perfectly. But for some reason, it hasn’t been so successful in England, and one can argue it’s actually been the worse in all the Top 5 European Leagues. Every week we see some VAR controversy and it seems that referee’s chief Howard Webb has had enough and some firings will be on the table during the upcoming days.❌Nightmare week for VAR. In Brighton’s first goal aganist Crystal palace,the line was drawn on the wrong defender, there is NO offside in the play.❌Semana para olvidar del VAR en la Premier. En el partido Crystal Palace – Brighton la línea fue dibujada en el defensa contrario pic.twitter.com/CHpnPMac9x— Football Offsides (@FutOffsides) February 12, 2023 As Daily Mail writes exclusively, the head of referees in England has called an emergency meeting for Tuesday after two blunders in the same round of the Premier League. Those incidents happened in the Arsenal – Brentford and Crystal Palace – Brighton games on Saturday (both finished 1-1). All Premier League referees, assistant referees and VAR officials are invited and all options are on the table, which means sacking the referees in the VAR room Lee Mason (who was wrong before) and John Brooks. Webb was forced to contact Arsenal and Brighton and acknowledge the ‘significant errors in the VAR process’.“Both incidents, which were due to human error and related to the analysis of offside situations, are being thoroughly reviewed,” he said in the statement.Tooney’s header puts a massive question mark on Arsenal’s title hopesArsenal have left with a huge problem after this error, since they are now only three points ahead of Manchester City in the title race, and their mutual clash is scheduled for Wednesday. On Saturday, the referee in the VAR room Lee Mason forgot(!) to draw the offside line and acknowledge the fact that Brentford’s equalizer was scored from the offside position. Christian Norgaard was offside when he crossed the ball for Toney, but Mason failed to do his job. In Brigton’s draw, the offside line was drawn from the wrong Palace defender by Brooks after Pervis Estupinan had scored for Roberto De Zerbi’s side.PREMIER LEAGUESaturdayWest Ham – Chelsea 1-1 (1-1)/Emerson 28 – Felix 16/Arsenal – Brentford 1-1 (0-0)/Trossard 66 – Tooney 74/Leicester City – Tottenham 4-1 (3-1)/Mendy 23, Maddison 25, Iheanacho 45+2 – Betancur 14/Fulham – Nottingham Forest 2-0 (1-0)/Willian 17, Solomon 88/Southampton – Wolverhampton 1-2 (1-0)/Alcaraz 24 – Bednarek 72 og, Gomes 87/Crystal Palace – Brighton 1-1 (0-0)/Tomkins 69 – March 63/Bournemouth – Newcastle 1-1 (1-1)/Senesi 30 – Almiron 45+2/SundayLeeds – Man.Utd. 0-2 (0-0)/Rashford 80, Garnacho 85/Manchester City – Aston Villa 3-1 (3-0)/Rodri 4, Gundogan 39, Mahrez 45+1 pen – Watkins 61/Monday23.00: (1.61) Liverpool (4.20) Everton (6.50)***odds are subject to change
