VAR got it wrong this weekend

With the majority of the gameweek 9 games of the Premier being played this weekend, VAR was once again the key talking point and topic of the weekend with managers such as Jurgen Klopp and Sean Dyche publicly stating their anger at some of the decisions made by VAR and the referee. With VAR still making mistakes, we thought we’d look at how it got some big decisions wrong this weekend.

Starting off, we’re looking at Leicester’s 2-1 home win over Burnley this weekend. Trailing 2-1 going into the final 10 minutes, Chris Wood thought he rescued a point for Burnley after putting the ball past Schmeichel into the back of the net. Jonny Evans appealed to the referee that he was fouled by Wood and therefore was unable to prevent the goal. VAR reviewed the goal and showed that Wood was focused on the ball and clearly didn’t intentionally foul Evans as it appeared to be more of a coming together than an intentional clash. Despite that, the goal was disallowed and Leicester went on to win 2-1 with Sean Dyche clearly fuming on the touchline.

After winning only 1 of their previous 6 games in all competitions, 3 points was a necessity for Tottenham in their home game against Watford on Saturday and after going 1-0 down within the opening 6 minutes it was the worst possible start. It looked to get from bad to worse for Tottenham after Jan Vertonghen brought down Gerard Deulofeu in the box 30 minutes later and despite the incident being checked by VAR and clearly showing that Vertonghen made no contact with the ball, no penalty was given.

Thanks to a goal from Dele Alli in the 86th minute, Tottenham found themselves level, however, after Watford players appealed to the referee that Ali used his hand to control the ball the goal was checked by VAR. The replay showed that Ali clearly used his arm to control the ball, but despite seeing the incident multiple times, the referee allowed the goal to stand. To add insult to injury, when the referee let the goal stand, the stadium screens stated that VAR disallowed the goal, leading to confusion in the stadium

Sunday’s big clash between Manchester United and Liverpool is likely to be remembered more for VAR than the game itself as there were a few instances where VAR influenced the game. After Marcus Rashford scored to put United 1-0 up VAR checked the goal after claims that Divock Origi was fouled seconds before the goal. The replay clearly showed that Victor Lindelof fouled and brought down Origi and was nowhere near winning the ball, however, despite reviewing the incident the goal stood, much to the frustration and bewilderment of Jurgen Klopp.