The incident that took place in the final minutes of West Ham-Arsenal is bound to be debated for a long time.
Kavanagh was called to the monitor and, from the moment of the goal to the final decision, a full five minutes passed. During the on-field review — as reported by Sky Sports — as many as 17 different frames were analysed, with attention focused on the contact between Raya and Pablo, who had extended his arm into the Arsenal goalkeeper.
For the referee, that intervention was enough to rule out West Ham’s goal. Furious Hammers protests followed, while Arsenal were able to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
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From there came the newspaper’s provocative reflection: VAR spent five minutes in front of the screens trying to work out “who was fouling whom” in a situation compared to “a Super Bowl game.”
The Telegraph struck a similar tone, pointing the finger at refereeing inconsistency: it recalled the goal Arsenal scored at Old Trafford last August, when Saliba allegedly impeded and “used his elbow” on Altay Bayindir in the move that led to Calafiori’s goal, yet there was no VAR review. It wrote, “Inconsistent officiating is at the heart of the controversy.”
Our own Gianpaolo Calvarese also weighed in, likewise highlighting the inconsistency of the English refereeing line: similar contact in the Premier League often goes unpunished. For the former referee, however, the main issue remains the endless length of the VAR review: the longer a check lasts on incidents like this, the more controversy and tension inevitably grow (HERE IS HIS OPINION).
On social media, the controversy has exploded and promises to drag on for a long time, with analysis, accusations and endless debate. All of it as the Premier League approaches its final, decisive matchdays: a title race in which, in the end, VAR may have had a huge and decisive impact.
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇮🇹 here.