Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has claimed that Arsenal's grievances with VAR last season is not "comparable" to the error made in Tottenham's clash in the previous weekend. It comes as VAR and match officials continue to dominate discussion surrounding the Premier League.
The referees have been called into question on multiple occasions so far this campaign, with PGMOL chief Howard Webb taking steps towards improving. On the field, it's looking at the processes that lead to decisions, while off it there has been a clear step up in transparent communication - such as the monthly "Refs Mic'd Up" show that gives an insight into decisions with referee audio.
However, the heat was firmly cranked up on the organisation over the past week as a huge error took place in the match between Tottenham and Liverpool. Luis Diaz appeared to open the scoring but was flagged offside, which was sent to the VAR hub for a double check.
The Colombian forward appeared to be onside, but the decision stayed the same, leading to questions over the decision in the aftermath. Spurs went on to win the game 2-1 late on, with two red cards given to Liverpool, but the discussion after was completely dominated by VAR.
The PGMOL published an apology to Liverpool and cited "significant human error", who in turn posted their own statement claiming they accepted it, but were looking at options to escalate the situation. The audio of the situation released shortly after, showing a clear mistake from VAR Darren England, believing the goal had been given onside until after the game kicked off again.
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Fast forward another day and Reds boss Jurgen Klopp claimed that he would like to see a replay for the match, but believes it would be unlikely. This caused mass uproar from many fanbases, including Arsenal, who were wronged by a VAR error in their title push last season.
In their clash with Brentford, the Gunners conceded a goal that should've been given as offside, but the wrong lines were drawn by the officials and it stood, resulting in a draw. It could've been a crucial point for the rest of the season, potentially changing the outcome as a whole.
According to Carragher though, that is totally different to the Liverpool situation, as he told the Telegraph: "Since Saturday there have been a series of examples of shocking refereeing decisions, many including Var, which fans, pundits or journalists are citing as equally worthy of a replay.
“Not one of them is comparable to the Diaz incident because in all those other instances the officials came together in the heat of the moment and made a poor decision that they believed to be correct based on the laws of the game. In some cases – but not all – they later admitted to a mistake and apologised.
"On Saturday, they came together in the heat of the moment and made the correct decision based on the laws of the game, but failed to communicate it so it did not apply on-field. When the Var forgot to draw offside lines to award Brentford a goal versus Arsenal last February, the procedure was wrong, but there was no goal awarded. It would only be the same as the Liverpool case had they drawn the lines, given the goal, but the referee continued the game with the score unchanged.”
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