VAR is doing exactly what it is supposed to, uphold the rules of the game.
VAR was the centre of attention once again at the weekend, mainly because of goals being ruled in or out because of an armpit hair or toenail.
Apparently it is against the spirit of the game when you ignore rules, it seems offside is not really offside these days.
Let’s do some comparisons for a minute to get an understanding of marginal calls.
In Cricket they go so in-depth that they even listen for sound when the naked eye cannot tell. In American football, they go right down to the smallest of possible margins and always have done so. Just this weekend I saw a touchdown ruled offside because the heel of a boot touched the paint on the sidelines even though it was literally a blade of painted grass.
In Tennis, it is exactly the same, Rugby League and Rugby Union are exactly the same, if the ball touched a fingernail it is called a forward pass.
I could go on, the point is that every sport that utilises a version of VAR works in millimetres, why should football be any different?
Then there is this absolute myth about the poor standard of English refs. You would think they are the worse on the planet and that every other nation has perfect refs and that the English ones cannot use VAR properly.
I recently read an article about video assistant referees in the Bundesliga, it has been absolutely hammered in Germany, it was terrible, controversy after controversy week in week out.
La Liga is exactly the same, non-stop criticism, as an example this article from Marca analyses the problems with VAR.
Another article in VAR goes with the headline VAR causing controversy all across Europe. In fact, do any Google search on any nation that uses VAR and you will find a whole heap of fierce criticism.
So, it is not just England and not just English refs being incompetent. It is refs all over the world actually implementing the rules, nothing more nothing less.
Finally, this article from the BBC covers the issues with VAR in the big leagues and all the problems they faced and the changes they had to make, no one single country has pulled it off without teething problems.
As for VAR being against Arsenal, it is Sheff Utd that have had the most VAR decisions against them, even Tottenham have had more than Arsenal.
VAR is a good thing, it will take time to be perfected, this has been proven in the other top leagues and it is being used far too often as an excuse for a bad result.