The use of video assistant referees (VAR) in the Premier League season has been characterised by controversial and at times outright incorrect officiating.
Referees are under more pressure than ever before but consistent mishaps have forced Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) into putting out apologies on a regular basis as England’s top flight continues to struggle with the implementation of VAR and various different rule changes.
Officiating appears to be in a state of complete chaos and it will take a long time to restore supporters’ faith in those who make decisions. With that in mind, let’s take a look at moments when VAR intervention failed and apologies were issued by PGMOL.
26 February 2022 – Everton 0-1 Manchester City
This one made a lot of people on Merseyside extremely angry. Towards the end of the season, Liverpool and Manchester City were battling for top spot in the Premier League but it was City who ultimately squeezed ahead by just a single point.
One of the key moments Liverpool look back on is this handball from Rodri which went unpunished against Everton at Goodison Park. As the ball bounced up and Rodri arrived to clear the danger, he misjudged the ball and it popped up and hit his arm right in front of a stand of Everton fans. This was late in the game with the Toffees only one goal down.
The bounce caught Rodri by surprise and his move towards the ball is somewhat undeniable, but despite a VAR review no penalty was given. Everton chairman Bill Kenwright and manager Frank Lampard both received phone calls from then chief Mike Riley to acknowledge the error.
20 August 2022 – Crystal Palace 3-1 Aston Villa
At the start of the 2022/23 season, Howard Webb had to dish out an apology early on in his new job after Aston Villa visited Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Referee Andy Madley awarded a penalty to Palace for a handball from Villans defender Lucas Digne.
It was agreed afterwards the handball Digne was punished for was harsh and Villa were handed an apology. His arm was high, but the Frenchman was jumping for a header with an opponent and had no way of getting the arm out of the way.
3 September 2022 – Chelsea 2-1 West Ham
There is always an even bigger outcry of emotion when one of the big teams in the Premier League sees a decision go their way as the conspiracy theories start to fly, and this call in Chelsea’s favour against West Ham did not help.
Chelsea had come from 1-0 down at Stamford Bridge to lead, but West Ham looked to have grabbed a late equaliser through Maxwel Cornet. However, it was decided by VAR that Jarrod Bowen had fouled Edouard Mendy in the build-up. It was incredibly soft, and then came the apology.
3 September 2022 – Newcastle 0-0 Crystal Palace
This was not a good day for the officials. Crystal Palace were once again done a favour by poor refereeing, this time at the expense of Newcastle in a game that ended goalless.
Tyrick Mitchell scored an own goal to put Newcastle ahead but it was decided Joe Willock had impeded goalkeeper Vicente Guaita.
VAR decided no goal but it was clear from the replays Mitchell had pushed Willock into the goalkeeper and the pair collided. It was closer to a penalty than a foul in the opposite direction but Newcastle had their goal taken away and did not get anything. There were 43 shots in that game but no goals given.
4 September 2022 – Manchester United 3-1 Arsenal
You know those weekends when bad decisions just seem to breed more bad decisions?
This howler came a day after the events at Stamford Bridge and St James’ Park as the third apology of the weekend was handed out to Arsenal for a decision that came early in the game and impacted the whole encounter.
At 0-0 at Old Trafford, Martin Odegaard was adjudged to have fouled Christian Eriksen in nicking the ball and setting Gabriel Martinelli away to score. It was ruled out and Man Utd went on to win 3-1, but PGMOL later admitted Arsenal should have been 1-0 up. This was one of the less clear-cut case studies as many thought it was a foul on Eriksen.
20 October 2022 – Fulham 3-0 Aston Villa
Poor old Aston Villa.
They received their second apology of the 2022/23 season away at Fulham when Douglas Luiz was shown a red card after a skirmish between him and Aleksandar Mitrovic. The two squared up and mirrored each other’s movements, but it was the Brazilian who was shown a straight red.
It was only 1-0 to Fulham at this point but there was no way back with ten players for Villa and Steven Gerrard’s side were booed off by their fans.
5 November 2022 – Nottingham Forest 2-2 Brentford
There were fireworks in Nottingham for multiple reasons as four goals went in at the City Ground, one of which caused serious anger. With Forest 1-0 up, Yoane Wissa race through on goal and knocked the ball beyond Dean Henderson, who did well not to clear the forward out completely.
In the end, the pretty inconclusive contact that Wissa seemed to initiate with his trailing leg was deemed worthy of a penalty and a yellow card for Henderson.
Fans and players alike were fuming and Forest were pegged back.
6 November 2022 – Aston Villa 3-1 Manchester United
This time, Aston Villa were the ones benefitting from poor officiating but they deserved to win this particular match against Man Utd anyway. It was Unai Emery’s first game in charge and the Spaniard started in trademark style against a Red Devils side that had found form.
Lucas Digne scored a free-kick and it was later shown that the referee set Man Utd’s wall up more than ten yards back, giving the left-back more of the goal to aim at. That led to an apology to Man Utd for one of the more unusual refereeing mistakes on the list.
11 February 2023 – Crystal Palace 1-1 Brighton
This is the third time opponents of Crystal Palace have been hard done by so far in this list.
Facing Brighton at Selhurst Park, the Seagulls were dominating and had a number of great chances. They then opened the scoring through Pervis Estupinan but he was deemed offside, which wasn’t the case as lines drawn by the VAR official were clearly incorrect.
A statement from Brighton later added: “While hugely disappointed by the error, the club has accepted PGMOL’s apology and will not be making any further comment.”
11 February 2023 – Arsenal 1-1 Brentford
This was a really big one in the context of Arsenal’s season and caused a large media storm. The Gunners were right in the thick of a title race against Manchester City and Brentford’s equaliser should not have stood.
The incident saw the game’s officials use the wrong player when trying to decide if the goal was offside or not.
“That wasn’t a human error. That was a big, big, big not conceiving and understanding your job,” Mikel Arteta said after the game. They were damning words and the anger was palpable.
8 April 2023 – Tottenham 2-1 Brighton
This entire match was fraught with annoyance and wrong decisions from a Brighton perspective. Four different decisions were dissected at length after the loss at Tottenham, but the main clanger which provoked a response from PGMOL was a stamp on the foot of Kaoru Mitoma from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the box which went unpunished.
Coaches Cristian Stellini and Roberto De Zerbi were sent off in this game for a bust-up between the two benches, but Brighton were left feeling they had been mugged in north London.
14 August 2023 – Manchester United 1-0 Wolves
The first gaffe of the 2023/24 season, Manchester United were done a monstrous favour by the officials when Andre Onana’s wild challenge on Sasa Kalajdzic when trying to claim the ball went unpunished.
Man Utd had played very poorly and Wolves absolutely deserved something from the game. At 1-0 down approaching full-time, replays suggested the Wanderers were going to get a penalty but instead they left with no points and an apology after the match.
After receiving that admission from Jon Moss, Wolves boss Gary O’Neil quipped: “It probably made me feel worse actually because once you know you are right you feel worse about leaving with nothing.”
30 September 2023 – Tottenham 2-1 Liverpool
This is the blunder that caused the biggest storm. Liverpool and Tottenham came into this Premier League clash unbeaten in 2023/24 but the game has not been remembered for its moments of on-field quality.
Liverpool had two players sent off which caused enough anger, but it was Luis Diaz’s disallowed goal that caused all the outrage. Shortly after Curtis Jones was sent off in the first half at 0-0 for a studs-up challenge on Yves Bissouma, Diaz was released and put Liverpool 1-0 up. The flag went up immediately but replays showed he was clearly in front of the last Spurs defender.
VAR Darren England inspected the incident without drawing the lines and quickly declared ‘check complete’, thinking the goal had been awarded on the field. PGMOL quickly admitted a ‘significant human error‘ had occurred, resulting in a media storm that even led to Jurgen Klopp talking about replaying the fixture.
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