Last month, Arsenal’s thrilling 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers was marred by a controversial red card shown to young defender Myles Lewis-Skelly shortly before half-time.
The decision sparked outrage online and was later overturned following an appeal from Arsenal. ..Continue Reading
However, despite the backlash, it is not one of the confirmed VAR errors this season.
Instead, a new report from the Premier League Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel has identified four significant VAR mistakes this season, none of which involve Arsenal.
There have been 70 VAR interventions across 239 league games this season, averaging about one intervention every three matches.
On four occasions, VAR made a significant error by incorrectly intervening, with some mistakes having a substantial impact on a club’s season.
The first error occurred in the second match week of the season during Bournemouth’s 1-1 draw with Newcastle United at the Vitality Stadium.
In the final moments of the match, Bournemouth substitute Dango Ouattara thought he had secured the winning goal, but it was wrongly disallowed for handball.
The next and perhaps most consequential error happened when West Ham United was incorrectly awarded a penalty in the 92nd minute of their match against Manchester United.
VAR official Michael Oliver advised referee David Coote to review Matthijs de Ligt’s contact with Danny Ings, resulting in a penalty that was converted by Jarrod Bowen, leading to a 2-1 victory for West Ham.
Not only did this match cost United three points, but it also led to Erik ten Hag’s sacking as Manchester United manager the next day.
A month later, Brentford’s Christian Norgaard should not have been shown a red card for a foul against Jordan Pickford during the 0-0 draw with Everton.
Finally, Nottingham Forest’s Nikola Milenkovic should not have seen his goal ruled out due to a subjective offside during their 3-2 win over Southampton.
Despite acknowledging these errors, chief football officer Tony Scholes claimed that England still boasts the best football officials in the world.
He said: “One of our main targets is to have the best match officials in the world — and we do.
“We have ten officials on the Fifa list and two of them — Michael Oliver and Anthony Taylor — are in the top ten in the world according to Fifa.
“Other leagues around the world look up to the officials and VAR process in this country as a model they would like to follow.
“That’s the message we get from people around the world.”
In total, the four significant errors occurred when VAR incorrectly intervened in match incidents. Additionally, the KMI panel admitted to nine missed interventions over the first 23 rounds of matches.
However, unlike the four major errors, the Premier League did not disclose the details of the nine missed interventions or whether Lewis-Skelly’s red card was among them.
