The Premier League exposed themselves with VAR blunder – it has to go | Football | Sport
There’s an irony that the team responsible for popularising the WWE-style corner routine will (most likely) win the Premier League title after a decision to rule a goal out for grappling and holding at a corner went in their favour. Let’s get one thing clear: if a referee is ruling that sort of goal out for a foul, the entire Premier League season needs to be replayed.
In isolation, the incident involving West Ham’s Pablo and Arsenal’s David Raya is a foul. It’s impossible to argue against it. The attacker is holding Raya’s arm, with the goalkeeper prevented from catching the ball. It isn’t without some theatrics from the Spaniard, who certainly made the most of the contact on his arm.
But it’s a foul. The issue is, so is Declan Rice’s rugby tackle on Konstantinos Mavropanos. There’s an extended period of time where Martin Odegaard is doing something similar to Jean-Clair Todibo. Speaking of which, Todibo himself has a fist full of Raya’s shirt. Even as Pablo is closing in on Raya, Leandro Trossard is wrestling the striker to the ground. Before the ball had even entered the box, Tomas Soucek was on the floor following an altercation with Kai Havertz. If we’re going in chronological order, that was the first incident.
At least five incidents that could all conceivably be given as fouls, all taking place at the same time, but only one was worthy of intervention. Speaking on the Sky Sports commentary, Gary Neville relayed information coming from Stockley Park that the other coming togethers couldn’t be a penalty because it occurred after the Raya/Pablo incident.
That’s despite several replays from different angles showing several Arsenal players grappling and dragging opponents, some of which by the waist, before Pablo even makes contact with the Gunners’ shot-stopper. And there lies the problem, not only with this decision, but with the application of this law throughout the entire season.
Corner kicks have resembled an American football scrimmage all season long. Players, specifically those from set-piece kings Arsenal, have been testing the boundaries and getting away with it since the opening weekend of the season. Just take a look at the winning goal from Arsenal’s 1-0 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford on the opening weekend.
The Premier League and their referees exposed themselves at the London Stadium. It was an admission of guilt. A recognition that they’ve allowed the holding and grappling at corners to go on far too long. The only issue is, they’re 36 matches too late.
