DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!?Premier League referee wants to cut Arsenal title hope short,watch another clear out of ball play that was awarded as goal today, VAR is really against Arsenal progress this season
Arsenal took on West Ham on Thursday night at the Emirates in one of several highly-anticipated Premier League clashes this week with major stakes in European slots.
Before Liverpool’s win over Burnley, the Gunners were first in the PL again heading into Christmas with every ambition of finally vanquishing Manchester City to win the league.
Unfortunately for Arsenal, they got off to the wrong start against the Hammers, with midfielder Tomás Souček scoring a shock goal to deliver West Ham a 1-0 lead before the half-hour mark.
The goal was a controversial one because star winger Jarrod Bowen didn’t seem to keep the ball in play on the end line. He did his best to put the ball into play and keep it from going over the line, but many fans weren’t convinced by the replay.
The problem is two-fold here.
Apparently the Premier League does not have adequate technology for the ball itself to signal officials that it has crossed the line, and, secondly, the officials in the VAR room did not have the technology to get any better images or angles than this one.
There were two main images we saw on the screen that the refs were looking at in the VAR box. The first was this one, with Bowen obscuring the ball. And the second was a worse shot, further away and grainy from the other side.
So the refs got neither a close-up from a camera on the other side of Bowen or a birds-eye view above the ball, in between Bowen and the right side of David Raya’s goalpost.
On the replay, Arsenal fans will point out that you could see the yellow of the right side of the ball just edge past the line and into Bowen’s foot before coming off, back into the field of play.
VAR could not make a definitive judgment and overturn the call on the pitch, and the larger problem is the Premier League’s inadequate technology, despite being the biggest league in the world, to make a proper, definitive call.
In the end, VAR isn’t the problem. The Premier League’s investment, implementation, and lack of thoroughness are.
Apologies to Arsenal fans. You probably got screwed on this one.
