Arsenal were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Brentford on Saturday & when you’re going up against Manchester City in a title race, every slip-up can have a huge impact on the race.
Except this time the slip-up was from the VAR room & not Arsenal themselves…
As per the Daily Mail, VAR Lee Mason forgot to draw offside lines on Ivan Toney’s equaliser in a mistake that could have a huge impact on Arsenal’s title hopes. Christian Norgaard was offside & had the lines been drawn, the goal would have been disallowed.
Victory for Arsenal would have taken them eight points clear at the top of the Premier League table but after the draw, Manchester could be three points behind them before both teams go head-to-head next Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta on Brentford’s goal being allowed to stand:
“I just looked back and it is offside. Have they explained why it wasn’t allowed? No. It is frustrating but they will probably give an explanation later in the week. Today we haven’t got one.”
The offside VAR checked.
VAR took a good few minutes trying to decide that Pinnock was not interfering with play, as per the photo above, but then rushed past the key incident and checked it without drawing the crucial VAR lines, as per the photo below.
The offside VAR didn’t check.
Norgaard would have been ruled offside and Toney’s 74th-minute goal disallowed, if the lines were drawn properly by VAR.
