Arsenal fans were unhappy that VAR did not intervene amid another offside controversy but the Blues’ goal was checked and cleared
Chelsea’s opening goal in the London derby with Arsenal was checked and cleared by VAR. Arsenal fans have been angrily accusing Video Assistant Referee John Brooks of missing a clear infringement as Trevoh Chalobah’s near post header gave Chelsea the lead.
Still pictures clearly show that Enzo Fernandez is standing in an offside position when Chalobah heads the ball. Fernandez is standing in front of Arsenal defender Cristhian Mosquera who was not able to clear the ball before it went into the net.
It could be seen as another row over whether or not a player in an offside position was deemed to be interfering with play.
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There have been high profile incidents in the last few weeks with Liverpool seeing Virgil van Dijk seeing his effort ruled out as Andy Robertson was stood in front of Manchester City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Robertson was deemed to have ducked and therefore made a clear action. Nottingham Forest’s goal stood at Anfield the following week even though Dan Ndoye was in front of Liverpool keeper Alisson Becker.
Arsenal were the beneficiaries a week later when Eberechi Eze’s goal stood against Tottenham when it was deemed three players stood in an offside position but did not obscure Guglielmo Vicario’s view.
The goal at Stamford Bridge stood because VAR did check it and cleared it because it was deemed that Fernandez was not impacting or interfering with play. They clearly did not feel Fernandez impacted Mosquera’s ability to play the ball.
Arsenal fans may not necessarily agree but it was checked, VAR did not miss it but did not think it was an offside decision.
The offside law has come under scrutiny this season because of the subjective nature of decisions.
In the last edition of the Officials Mic’D up show, PGMOL chief Howard Webb backed the decision to disallow the van Dijk goal saying it was a “subjective” decision.
But Webb did say the VAR will then only intervene if there is a clear mistake. Webb added: “Once they’ve made that onfield decision, the job of the VAR is to look at that and decide was the outcome of offside clearly and obviously wrong?
“The VAR determines that the outcome of offside is not clearly and obviously wrong and they stay out of it.”
Arsenal’s defenders did not appeal and, despite the backlash on social media over the decision which followed, Mikel Arteta did not raise it as an issue in his post-match press conference afterwards, although he may not even have been aware at that point.
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