After missing a Declan Rice handball in the most recent Arsenal tie, referee David Coote and his VAR team might have committed a serious error.
How is VAR affecting Arsenal currently?
For the second time in as many meetings, the Gunners were unable to maintain a two-goal advantage as they were held to a 2-2 draw by West Ham United on Sunday.
In fact, Mikel Arteta’s team scored twice in the opening ten minutes through Gabriel Jesus and Martin Odegaard before giving up two goals throughout the course of the rest of the match.
Before Jarrod Bowen scored an equalizer soon after Bukayo Saka missed a chance, Said Benrahma converted a penalty to alter the atmosphere at the London Stadium.
But if we look again at West Ham’s opening goal, it looks Rice used his hand to knock Thomas Partey off the ball before the scoring.
There is plenty of web evidence to support the idea that VAR may have prevented the goal, as can be seen in this video and this image.
image taken on 2023-04-17 at 10:57:01
Did Rice strike Arsenal with his hand?
Partey, an Arsenal midfielder, picked up the ball too casually on the outskirts of his area, and Rice did well to contain him. As soon as Lucas Paqueta received the ball, he was fouled, and referee Coote immediately directed to the spot.
However, as the image above demonstrates, Rices’ use of his hand would not have allowed West Ham to win the ball back in such a manner.
Although VAR looked into the incident, it was decided that it wasn’t sufficient to overturn the verdict on the penalty, which will undoubtedly irk Arsenal fans.
While criticizing Partey for being “loose” with the ball during the play, journalist Jack Holmes did note that it “probably” was “a handball” from the West Ham midfielder.
The Gunners’ two lost points will undoubtedly leave them feeling extremely disappointed as their four-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the standings has now been cut in half.
After the game, Arteta spoke with BBC Sport and criticized his players for being careless rather than placing the responsibility on the handball. He said: “We started really well, dominated the game, dominated the pitch, and scored two fantastic goals. We then made a terrible error by stopping the game before the third and fourth goals could be scored.
“We began holding onto the ball while making sloppy passes away. We didn’t completely control the straight play and gave West Ham some transitional time. Then the contest begins. In this league, you are in serious trouble if you give up goals like the first and second ones we gave up and don’t score a penalty.
