After failing to give Arsenal a penalty for a handball last night, referee Robert Jones and his VAR team may have made a serious error.
How is VAR affecting Arsenal currently?
enmity rivals On Tuesday night, Chelsea travelled to the Emirates Stadium for a crucial match for both teams.
Even though London derbies are always important games, the Gunners needed to win this one to maintain their chances of winning the Premier League, while the Blues were hoping to pick up their first victory under interim manager Frank Lampard.
In the end, Mikel Arteta’s team prevailed 3-1 thanks to goals from Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus and a second-half goal from Noni Madueke.
Despite winning quite easily, things might have been even simpler if referee Jones had called a penalty after 27 minutes with the score still only 1-0.
Leandro Trossard attempts to cross the ball into the box, but Chelsea’s Wesley Fofana blocks it with his hand, as seen in this video (from Sky Sports, shared online).
Did Arsenal against Chelsea merit a penalty?
The Blues defender clearly appears to move his arm towards the ball, as the replay demonstrates, and whenever that arm unavoidably makes contact with the ball, a penalty may be assessed.
Referee Jones didn’t appear to notice it in real time, and it’s likely that VAR decided the error wasn’t significant enough to intervene and overturn the on-field judgement.
Fofana can consider himself fortunate in this instance because the contact is so obvious and his forearm is extended beyond his body.
Even so, Chelsea’s luck was insufficient to help them win, and manager Lampard appeared quite irate at the conclusion of the game, taking a shot at his players.
“Chelsea has been a big success for 20 years, but at the moment we aren’t in that position,” he told the press (via 90min). Since I’ve been here, it’s become obvious why on the practise pitch and behind the scenes.
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“It doesn’t matter where you go as long as you’re going to be a nice team to play against all the time. Although it won’t change over night, we should move quickly.
“There are a number of reasons for our game’s passive nature. The athletes genuinely care. They lack confidence, but Chelsea players must play a certain way regardless of their level of confidence.
“Whatever it is, it might not even matter because the only way to get through it is to comprehend it and put forth a lot of effort. For a long time, the gap was in the opposite direction.
