For me personally, VAR has sucked all the excitement out of celebrating a goal.
It has destroyed the instinctive reaction that used to follow the sight of the ball hitting the back of the net. The cursory glance at the linesman before going mental is long gone.
Even though I’m still off my feet, in that precise moment the celebration is hesitant, with thoughts immediately turning to VAR.
What follows is an anxious wait that lasts more than a few moments, with the need to look around the stadium, a glance up to the big screen before checking the opposition players and the referee for the tell-tale sign that a VAR check is coming.
Sometimes these checks don’t materialise and it’s back to celebrating and you might argue a goal is a goal, but it’s just not the same.
I wrote an article for the Mag published three years ago when commenting on the VAR debacle at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium after Luis Diaz’ perfectly good goal was disallowed because of the breakdown in communications involving Darren England, who was the Video Assistant Referee that day.
That name will be familiar to most of us because it was Darren England on VAR duty at Stockley Park last Sunday, when he asked referee Chris Kavanagh to take a closer look at the infringement on Arsenal keeper David Raya in the aftermath of former Newcastle United striker Callum Wilson’s late equaliser in West Ham’s home game against the Gunners.
The wild celebrations for the Happy Hammers were shortlived, the moment cruelly extinguished by VAR.
The stakes were incredibly high. Arsenal clinging onto all three points and barring a calamitous end to the season, they will surely be crowned Premier League champions on Sunday week.
West Ham meanwhile, denied a crucial point, knowing that even maximum points from their remaining fixtures against Newcastle United and Leeds may not be sufficient in their quest to avoid the drop.
Was it a foul? Maybe. Were there other infringements happening simultaneously? Definitely.
The real point here is inconsistent application of the laws of the game, together with more than a hint of irony.
One-third of Arsenal’s league goals have come in a not too dissimilar fashion to the goal that Callum Wilson was so cruelly denied, with the constant grappling, pushing, pulling and wrestling going unchecked. Fair to say that Arsenal have become adept at crowding and surrounding goalkeepers at corners, to score from set-pieces.
I read on the BBC Sport site: “For all the talk about jostling and pushing, West Ham’s is the only goal to be ruled out for it on VAR review this season.”
I was also reminded that Arsenal scored perfectly legitimate goals against Man Utd and Aston Villa earlier in the season despite William Saliba and Gabriel impeding both goalkeepers. And West Ham’s Pablo had been at it as recently as April, clearly putting his arm across Jordan Pickford when Thomas Soucek was the beneficiary, a game in which the Irons ran out 2-1 winners against Everton.
Back to Pablo last Sunday.
There is a school of thought that him being impeded by Leandro Trossard (who was clearly grabbing the Brazilian around the waist) directly contributed to the forward putting his arm across Raya.
Unprecedented holding and grappling at corners all stems from tweaks made to the Professional Game Match Officials (PGMOL) Competition Guidance Handbook in 2024/25, when the concept of “mutual holding” was deemed “should usually be allowed”, that “not every contact is a foul” and that referees should maintain a “high threshold” for intervention.
It strikes me that the controversy last Sunday was because England and Kavanagh took it upon themselves to enforce the rules in a manner that hadn’t been the case for many months previously.
By the standard of what had gone before, they contrived to make an incorrect decision, whatever you might think of the specific incident involving Pablo and Raya.
And even if you think England made the right call to send Kavanagh to the VAR screen, was it clear and obvious? Not for me. Was it the case that Kavanagh had missed the incident? Highly likely, but quite bizarre given the prevailing circumstances that the referee managed to conclude that he’d seen that specific foul, but that he was able to effectively ignore and disregard all of the other incidents that were going on (and fouls being committed).
I am not disputing Pablo had his arm across Raya but such random enforcement of justice is a bit concerning isn’t it?
Is there an agenda to make sure Arsenal lift the title? Or to prevent Spurs from being relegated? If not the former, you might think the latter, when considering the standard of officiating in the first half at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium last night, the referee enforcing the eight second rule against Karl Darlow, which is the first time I can recall that happening in a long while.
Apparently, football’s lawmakers will look at how the game can better deal with grappling at corners after this summer’s World Cup, and not before time, because this has become a rather unedifying spectacle. The aesthetics are appalling, the officiating that stem from it equally dire and doing nothing to enhance the image of the beautiful game.