Arsenal denied win after VAR misses offside in Brentford goal!

Arsenal were held to a 1-1 draw by Brentford in the Premier League, but it was not without controversy. 

'The Daily Mail' revealed that VAR Lee Mason forgot to draw offside lines at Stockley Park to check Ivan Toney's goal which levelled the scores in the 74th minute. This was then confirmed by Chris Foy of referees body PGMOL. 

The goal should not have stood as Christian Norgaard was offside as he assisted Toney. Mason was too busy checking a possible offside against Ethan Pinnock for interfering with Gabriel that he forgot to check the factual offside which followed. 

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was understandably furious afterwards as the decision could be key to deciding the title race. "We dropped two points," he began. "Have they explained why it was allowed? No. It's frustrating, but they'll probably give an explanation later in the week. Today we haven't got one."

It was not the only VAR blunder on Saturday as Brighton had a goal wrongly disallowed against Crystal Palace after the VAR drew the lines from the wrong defender while Chelsea were denied a late penalty against West Ham for a Tomas Soucek handball which the Blues called a "great save."

 

February 12, 2023