Arѕenаl аt rіѕk of VAR dіѕаѕter аgаіn ᴜnleѕѕ PGMOL аcceрt oᴜtѕіde һelр іn tһe Preміer Leаgᴜe

The controversy over VAR has not subsided and Arsenal were once again at the center of the match against Manchester City, with PGMOL having to consider third-party help.

I love all the Arsenal fans, it’s probably fair to say that everyone at this point is extremely frustrated with the lack of consistency and persistent errors with the refereeing and viewing system Consider the current VAR. The weekend’s clash with Manchester City resulted in another incident that did not have the desired result.

This of course refers to how long Matteo Kovacic has managed to stay on the field. An initial foul worthy of a red card on Martin Odegaard was assessed as only a yellow card before another foul on Declan Rice was ruled out.

This comes months after Arsenal made a mistake when Lee Mason forgot to check for offside, allowing Ivan Toney to score incorrectly as Brentford earned a draw at the Emirates Stadium. An incident greatly affected the team’s motivation as they chased the title.

PGMOL chief Howard Webb appeared on our screens again on Tuesday night and discussed Kovacic’s red card. His explanation was quite astonishing.

“Yes”, Webb replied when asked if the Croatian was lucky not to receive a second yellow card.“Second yellow cards are something that VAR cannot intervene on. But he is an extremely lucky player to stay on the field.

“Of course referee Michael will certainly look at that and he doesn’t want to negatively influence the game by overreacting to something, and sometimes players will get a yellow card and will being pressured to show excessive attitudes.” the second one.”

Don’t want to overreact? This is a phrase that makes me extremely uncomfortable because only last season did we see the same referee give two yellow cards to Gabriel Martinelli and a red card for actions in the same phase of play – irony of the highest level.

Furthermore, this idea of ​​overreacting is not a justification for making a bad decision. Red cards can certainly ruin a game, but if they are given legally, we cannot suddenly decide not to brandish them because tackles deserve punishment.

David Ornstein spoke to Sky Sports and described the “friendly” nature between officials and emphasized that the majority come from similar backgrounds. He added that efforts are being made to expand the diversity of civil servants at the highest levels.

For me and for clubs like Arsenal who regularly make these mistakes, this is not enough.From a VAR perspective, a third party must be involved without any friendly relationship with the on-field officials.

We don’t need another Mike Dean incident where the referee, in this case Anthony Taylor, was kept off-screen because he was trying to protect him. These referees must be able to make the right decisions in the most stressful situations and VAR is always ready to help them do that, even if they initially make mistakes.

Having a third party operate the video referee chamber will remove this human empathy element to a greater extent and will hopefully help ensure that the correct decision is made over the longer term. It’s almost impossible to eliminate errors because human error will always exist, but how often do errors need to be corrected, and this strategy will help solve that problem.