Is VAR against Arsenal?
Arsenal faced off against Aston Villa on the weekend and walked away defeated 1-0, after what was an eventful game at Villa Park. Again, VAR referees are coming into question after a few questionable decisions from Australian Referee Jarad Gillett and his assistants through the match, and has left Arsenal fans feeling singled out again and hard done by after what turned out to be one of our biggest games of the season.
In the 41st minute Gabriel Jesus made his way into the box but was stonewall tackled by Douglas Luiz and had his leg kicked blatantly from the back and squeezing him between Luiz and another Villa player in the middle of the box, but VAR and the ref didn’t even blink an eye at the contact. That for me was a straight red card and a penalty and in a game with such high tempo and a lot on the line, a penalty could change the whole game and could have put us in the driving seat.
In the second half another blatant red card off the ball when in the 88th minute Diego Carlos was seen to elbow Eddie Nketiah in the head and it was just ruled to be a yellow card. A blatant red card for me, it looked intentional and even if it wasn’t, it was dangerous play. A straight elbow to the head. To make it even worse, when you look back at the replays, it’s painfully clear that referee Jarad Gillett wasn’t even looking when the challenge was made, and his assistants were too focused on Arsenal players being offside than what was happening off the ball.
When you’ve got a system like VAR and you have the ability to look back at this type of stuff and analyse it, I don’t see how they can come to the conclusion that it wasn’t a dangerous challenge and only deserved a yellow card.
And in the dying minutes of the game another questionable decision, when Kai Havertz was seen handballing the ball before he put it into the net. But the whole run of play was a bit confusing and when you look back at it, it leaves you with more questions than answers. The ball gets whipped into the box, onto the head of Kai Havertz, who the heads the ball onto Matty Cash’s upper arm, then hits Havertz’s lower wrist, then hits Cash’s arm again, before hitting Havertz’s hand and then Havertz’s knocking the ball into the back of the net.
This is the one that probably makes the most sense when it comes to the rules of the game, but the proximity has to be a concern and the amount of stuff that happened in the build up leaves you wondering if the striker should have just got the benefit of the doubt in a situation like that. The handball rule is a confusing one and it never seems to be consistent from game to game so no wonder people get confused by what the law is and isn’t, but it is certain that no handball was intentional.
What’s your thought on the VAR and referee decisions on the weekend Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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