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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Mark Jones

Arsenal goal decision confirmed among six VAR mistakes in Premier League this season

There were six incorrect VAR interventions in the first part of the Premier League season, according to a panel set up to investigate the controversial decisions.

The incidents, which include Gabriel Martinelli's disallowed goal for Arsenal at Manchester United, were all looked into by a panel comprising of three former players and a representative from the Premier League and the PGMOL, the referees body.

ESPN report that the six incidents were picked out among the 48 VAR overturns in the Premier League this season.

Arsenal's Martinelli raced through and thought he'd given his side the lead in the 12th minute of the match at Old Trafford in September, only for VAR Lee Mason to tell referee Paul Tierney to disallow the goal because of what he deemed to be a foul by Martin Odegaard on Christian Eriksen.

United went on to win the match 3-1 in what remains Arsenal's only Premier League defeat of the season.

Both Odegaard and his manager Mikel Arteta criticised the decision at the time.

Arteta said: "It's a lack of consistency. What is soft? Last week, they [Aston Villa] got a goal when there's a foul on Aaron (Ramsdale), but it's soft and it's not a foul.

Martinelli thought he'd given Arsenal the lead at Old Trafford (Getty Images)

"Then there's a penalty on Bukayo [Saka, by Tyrone Mings] but it's soft and not a penalty. Today this is a foul.

"There were some strong tackles and no yellow cards because the threshold is low because it's a big game. It's really difficult to accept."

Odegaard added: "In my opinion, it's never a foul. The referee sees it and plays play on.

"It's a soft challenge and for VAR to come in it has to be clear and obvious. That's been said a lot of times.

"On the camera, you can always make it look a little bit worse, but, for me, that was never a foul so it's frustrating."

The other five decisions found to be incorrect included penalties awarded to Crystal Palace and Brentford in matches against Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest respectively.

Palace's was given for a handball against Lucas Digne, with Wilfried Zaha scoring from the rebound, and Brentford's was awarded for a foul by Dean Henderson on Yoane Wissa, and was scored by Bryan Mbeumo.

West Ham had their late equaliser at Chelsea chalked off (Getty Images)

The other decisions were Maxwel Cornet's last minute equaliser for West Ham at Chelsea, which was disallowed for a foul on Edouard Mendy by Jarrod Bowen, with West Ham losing the match 2-1, Crystal Palace defender Tyrick Mitchell's own goal scored for Newcastle in a goalless draw, which was disallowed for a Joe Willock foul on Vicente Guaita, and Douglas Luiz's red card for Aston Villa in their 3-0 loss at Fulham, given for violent conduct against Aleksandar Mitrovic.

Former referee Howard Webb has been charged with improving VAR and its use having taken up his role as head of the PGMOL.

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