{"id":503375,"date":"2026-03-30T12:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503375\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T12:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T12:01:08","slug":"var-in-the-premier-league-are-you-for-or-against","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/503375\/","title":{"rendered":"VAR in the Premier League: Are you for or against?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Huge VAR moments &#8211; Brentford equaliser dents Gunners title hopespublished at 11:20 BST<\/p>\n<p>11:20 BST<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Ivan Toney celebrates after scoring against Arsenal\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ccb9b438-bcc6-4043-bbfc-0b12c782d83c.jpg.webp.webp\"  width=\"1020\" height=\"573\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said he would only be satisfied if his side were given two points back for the VAR error that allowed Brentford&#8217;s equaliser to stand in February 2023.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">During the 1-1 draw at Emirates Stadium, Ivan Toney&#8217;s 74th-minute goal was the subject of a VAR check by Lee Mason following Ethan Pinnock&#8217;s challenge on Gabriel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">That incident was cleared but there was a suggestion that then Brentford midfielder Christian Norgaard was offside in the goal&#8217;s build-up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">However, Mason did not use the system&#8217;s lines that would have shown whether the Dane was offside or not, something that was later called &#8220;human error&#8221; in a statement by the PGMOL.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It wasn&#8217;t human error, it was not understanding your job,&#8221; said Arteta.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;That&#8217;s not acceptable, I&#8217;m sorry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;It cost Arsenal two points that are not going to be restored so we are going to have to find those two points somewhere else in the league.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mason was not selected for any Premier League matches the following weekend, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/64683971\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">subsequently left the PGMOL by mutual consent<\/a>, while PGMOL chief refereeing officer Howard Webb contacted Arsenal to &#8220;acknowledge and explain the significant error&#8221; that occurred.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Huge VAR moments &#8211; Brentford equaliser dents Gunners title hopespublished at 11:20 BST 11:20 BST Image source, Getty&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-503375","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\/503375","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=503375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}