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Tom Coley

PGMOL ignore VAR error in West Ham v Chelsea despite contacting Arsenal and Brighton for apology

PGMOL have released a statement referring to two refereeing decisions that VAR got wrong over the weekend but didn't include Chelsea's own call.

The Blues were denied a penalty by match referee Craig Pawson in normal time in the last minute of their 1-1 draw with West Ham when Thomas Soucek handled the ball in the area.

The Czech midfielder fell to the ground as the ball hit his hand but Pawson waved play on and wasn't referred to the screen by VAR offiicial Neil Swarbrick. Despite being crowded by players nothing was given and Chelsea had to settle for a point.

READ MORE: Rio Ferdinand and Joe Cole agree on major penalty incident in West Ham vs Chelsea clash

Whilst this was happening Arsenal felt aggrieved to see Ivan Toney's equaliser allowed to stand at the Emirates Stadium across London with an offside appearing in the build-up. It has since been revealed that Lee Mason didn't draw the recquired lines on the screen when checking the decision.

As for Brighton, they looked lucky to get away with an early tackle from Alexis Mac Allister, who wasn't sent off for a poor challenge against Crystal Palace despite VAR intervention. They were then made to pay as Pervis Estupinan's goal was incorrectly ruled out for offiside.

With these decisions being reviewed by new chief Howard Webb, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) has since given a statement on the decisions made, writing: "PGMOL can confirm its Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb has contacted both Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion to acknowledge and explain the significant errors in the VAR process in their respective Premier League fixtures on Saturday.

"Both incidents, which were due to human error and related to the analysis of offside situations, are being thoroughly reviewed by PGMOL."

It isn't the first time that the Premier League has been forced to apologise for VAR or refereeing mistakes and former official Peter Walton was on hand to offer his view of Chelsea's missed decision, something that was not mentioned in the PGMOL statement. He explained: "The law is clear, the VAR clearly thinks the arm is in a natural position and that he is going down to break his fall.

"If you analyse it in slow motion, you can see the ball is past his knee and then his arm is there. For me, I think it is a deliberate act and am disappointed the VAR didn’t give the referee the opportunity to go and have a second look at it. Football, I think, as a community, would want that given as a penalty. As a former Premier League referee I think that was the wrong decision today."

Graham Potter felt similarly and labelled it as a good save from Soucek, meanwhile Thiago Silva and Chelsea's social media account have also made digs at Pawson and Swarbrick.

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