{"id":402890,"date":"2026-02-01T21:17:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T21:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/402890\/"},"modified":"2026-02-01T21:17:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T21:17:08","slug":"abraham-denied-by-var-as-10-man-brentford-deal-blow-to-aston-villas-title-hopes-premier-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/402890\/","title":{"rendered":"Abraham denied by VAR as 10-man Brentford deal blow to Aston Villa\u2019s title hopes | Premier League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aston Villa were already angry at trailing to 10-man Brentford and then, four minutes into the second half, those frustrations grew tenfold.<\/p>\n

Tammy Abraham thought he had made a goalscoring return, his first Villa goal since winning promotion from the Championship seven years ago, but then it was all eyes on the referee, Tim Robinson, and the big screens flagging a review. At Stockley Park, the video assistant referee, Paul Tierney, rewound the clock by 19 seconds, to the moment Leon Bailey, at the opposite end of the pitch, was deemed to have failed to keep the ball in play.<\/p>\n

After a VAR delay of almost four minutes, Robinson\u2019s mic connected with the stadium speakers. \u201cAfter review, the ball is factually out of play, so the restart will be a throw-in to Brentford,\u201d the referee said amid mass groans \u2013 and much worse \u2013 from the restless locals. It was reminiscent of Newcastle\u2019s winner against Arsenal in 2023<\/a>, when Anthony Gordon\u2019s goal was allowed to stand because there was no conclusive evidence the ball had gone out in the buildup, though seemingly there were no such problems at the VAR hub on this occasion. The Premier League\u2019s match centre said the ball was out of play \u201cwithin the attacking possession phase (APP)\u201d.<\/p>\n

Unai Emery suggested running play back so far sets a dangerous precedent. \u201cI think it\u2019s not fair, but it happened and I must accept it,\u201d said the Villa manager. \u201cThe referees are so demanding of themselves to get everything right. If there is something they can improve, I know they will do it. My explanation is that the goal happened a long time after the initial incident, and if the linesman didn\u2019t see it, we have to keep playing. It\u2019s difficult for VAR to analyse this goal. It\u2019s so tight. But when VAR asks the referee \u2026 the problem is the VAR must not ask the referee in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keith Andrews, the Brentford<\/a> head coach, acknowledged the period of time before a goal the VAR should assess is the \u201cmillion-dollar question\u201d, but insisted Abraham\u2019s disallowed goal was in the \u201csame phase of play\u201d as Bailey was facing his own goalline trying to keep the ball in play. Bailey, making a homecoming of a different kind after being recalled from Roma last month, was on his backside when the ball appeared to drift out of play near the corner flag. Villa kickstarted their attack from there, diagonally surging upfield, culminating in Jadon Sancho jinking inside Jordan Henderson and forcing Caoimh\u00edn Kelleher into an instinctive save. Abraham was quickest to the rebound and wheeled away in celebration, but it was short-lived. Invariably, the discourse surrounding the decision is unlikely to die down anytime soon.<\/p>\n

Tammy Abraham\u2019s effort was ruled out after a review. Photograph: Jacob King\/PA<\/p>\n

Brentford went close to compounding Villa\u2019s misery, Kristoffer Ajer almost scoring from the restart, long-throw specialist Michael Kayode launching the ball into the box. It was one of just two shots the visitors mustered on target, the other Dango Ouattara\u2019s brilliant goal in first-half stoppage time, five minutes after Kevin Schade was sent off for petulantly shoving his studs into Matty Cash\u2019s groin after the pair tangled.<\/p>\n

Ouattara raced into the channel and after his attempt to square the ball for Igor Thiago was blocked by Pau Torres, from an awkward angle, he simply cut on to his left boot and lashed an unerring strike into the far top corner. Schade, Andrews said, was a relieved man. \u201cHe\u2019s very grateful that his teammates put in the shift they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Andrews, whose side moved within four points of fifth-placed Chelsea, this victory represented another feather in the cap, the Brentford manager eight months into the job getting one over on Emery, by comparison a veteran. Villa had lost just two league games here since the start of last season, though this defeat means they have lost successive home games for the first time in two years. \u201cTo say the performance was pleasing is an understatement,\u201d Andrews said. \u201cIt was a defensive masterclass in the second half. The desire to stop the ball going in our net was immense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kevin Schade clashes with Aston Villa\u2019s Matty Cash, resulting in a red card for the Brentford winger. Photograph: Mark Thompson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The inevitable Villa onslaught felt unsustainable from a Brentford perspective. The visitors had to withstand waves of pressure. Sancho ran at Kayode time and again, with varying degrees of success. Kelleher smothered an Emi Buend\u00eda effort at the back post approaching the hour, by which point it had long turned into a game of attack v defence. A cute Sancho cutback eluded those in claret and blue that had loaded the box. Cash saw a stinging effort repelled by the busy Kelleher.<\/p>\n

Brentford required some respite but it also proved a draining experience for everyone of a Villa persuasion. Emery turned to Harvey Elliott, who entered as a substitute for his seventh appearance in all competitions since joining on loan from Liverpool and only his second since October. Villa tried to force an equaliser. Morgan Rogers whipped a devilish cross into the six-yard box and in the 90th minute Bailey wasted Villa\u2019s best chance, ballooning over after driving inside the substitute Aaron Hickey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aston Villa were already angry at trailing to 10-man Brentford and then, four minutes into the second half,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-402890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}