VAR & Referees have been all over the news in the past week or so and once again our resident man with the whistle runs his eye over not only the Saints game but the other Premier League fixtures.
"There’s been loads of discussions about referees over the last week! Whether it’s from the sacking of Lee Mason, the VAR controversies from last weekend and all the European games, to the abuse of referees! As I’ve certainly not seen this much discussion about them over a week in a very long time!
But it’s now time to see if that’ll be changing this week when we have a look at all the major decisions from this weekends fixtures…
Chelsea VS Southampton (David Coote)
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to be present at this game or be able to watch it live due to officiating reasons (although I might as well of been for how badly I was wetting myself when I came back to the changing rooms and found out there were 9 of the 12 minutes of injury time left!), so am just basing my report on the highlights I’ve seen of this game.
But still it was certainly nice to watch the highlights and actually enjoy watching them for once, without going ballistic at the TV screen! But still it sure was a great start for Selles and his time here.
But for VAR and Coote it was a fairly straight forward game to manage with not too much to deal with. As it was a clear foul on Armstrong for Prowse’s free kick, so no discussions there. But still some good advantages played by Coote both for and against us.
Although there was one major decision that Coote may have messed up on, was not sending Mara off for seriously endangering the safety of an opponent by kicking Azpilicueta in the head with his attempted bicycle kick. As it was a genuine attempt to play the ball and had no intent to injure an opponent, but when you kick someone like that, it should be a red and we were lucky that Mara wasn’t sent off for that.
TUI Viewpoint- I agree with SFC Ref regarding Mara, it has always been a moot point with me that so many overhead kick type goals are allowed to stand and therefore a lot of players try them.
In the heat of a game it is sometimes hard to tell where an opponent exactly is, yet players still launch an overhead kick, a defender has too choices either stand well clear or try and head the ball and risk getting his head kicked off.
If a defender is near enough to be able to try to head an over height ball, then to try an overhead kick is dangerous play and should be dealt with, a similar dangerous and reckless tackle on the legs would see a red so why not an overhead kick.
Aston Villa VS Arsenal (Simon Hooper)
Not often you see a game with 6 goals in the prem like this, where none of the goals had no real officiating/VAR controversies around them, but this sure is one! As all 6 goals were perfectly valid with nether teams having any complaints around any of them or any other incidents. So a great game for Hooper and VAR.
Brentford VS Crystal Palace (Paul Tierney)
There was a last minute equaliser in London on Saturday afternoon, but thankfully that was just for Brentford at their grounds and not Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, which is what denied Palace the win. But both that equaliser and the opener from Palace had no controversies so rightfully stood, with nothing else really happening in this game. So an easy game for Tierney to ref with very little for VAR to check.
Brighton VS Fulham (Darren England)
A little bit more to discuss in this game around the officiating and major decisions. As there was some half shouts from both teams for a penalty to Fulham for a handball and a penalty for Brighton for a supposed foul, although both were rightfully dismissed (although the Brighton player really should’ve also been cautioned for simulation in my opinion). The VAR also rightfully ruled out a Brighton goal for an offside, unlike the Fulham goal which rightfully stood and got Fulham the win.
De Zerbi was also sent off after full time in the tunnel, for dissent, and rightfully so for how pathetic of a manager he can be towards officials, blaming England for incidents from last week that he had no say over, and trying to blame and criticise their decisions against Brighton, which are so clearly correct. So fair play to Darren England for dealing with the likes of him and giving him what he deserves (just need more refs to do that, as well as dealing with players in the same way).
So overall a good game from England and his team.
Everton VS Leeds (Andy Madley)
Yet another game from this weekend with very fine margins in the scoreline in which the officials or VAR couldn’t afford to mess up on, and again didn’t. As there was an early scrap between the two teams, but it was going both ways and just a few cautionings was a fair outcome, and with Everton’s goal there were no issues around. So a great game for Madley and VAR.
Forest VS Man City (Graham Scott)
Just as everyone thought Man City would be starting to get ahead of everyone else and create a gap between them and Arsenal, this result comes along and stirs things up yet again!
But this result didn’t have too much to do with VAR or Scott, with both goals rightfully standing with no controversies around either.
Although again it was nice to see a ref dealing with dissent and cautioning Guardiola for his pathetic appeals when Haaland went down far too easily and VAR/Scott rightfully waved away the appeals. So a good game for Scott and VAR.
Wolves VS Bournemouth (Michael Salisbury)
This game was that short on MOTD that there couldn’t have been any major VAR decisions otherwise it would’ve been at least twice as long! But yeah practically nothing major for VAR or Tierney to deal with, as Bournemouth's goal there was no issues with, and there was practically nothing else to discuss. So a fairly relaxed and easy game for Tierney and VAR to deal with.
Newcastle VS Liverpool (Anthony Taylor)
A very big game for both teams this weekend, and one that couldn’t have started any worse for Newcastle! As both of Liverpool's goals were perfectly valid, but then a stupid decision by Pope, who clearly intentionally handled the ball miles outside the box to prevent Salah from getting there, but ended up paying the price for it, as he was rightfully sent off for a DOGSO offence (which also means he’s suspended for the EFL Cup final next weekend) which no Newcastle fan could complain about!
But after the first 20 minutes with all this for Taylor to deal with, there was very little else to discuss with no major calls from ether team for VAR to check. So overall a great game from Taylor and VAR.
Man United VS Leicester (Stuart Attwell)
This was a fairly one sided game, with not too much for VAR to do. As both of United’s first two goals had no real controversy around them, although their second one was originally ruled out by the AR but VAR rightfully overruled it due to him being onside and the goal rightfully being given. But United’s third goal did have a few Leicester players calling for a supposed foul in the buildup to their goal, with it occurring just as Man U got the ball back. But in my view there certainly wasn’t enough for VAR to intervene as I think the Leicester player has gone down far too easily and it certainly wasn’t a clear and obvious error.
Other than that, there were some half shouts for a red card for a Man U player as well, and I do personally think it should’ve been at least a cautioning. But as to whether it’s a red or yellow, I’m not too sure, but certainly do say that VAR should’ve at least sent the ref to the monitor to review this decision as sometimes that’ll be a red, sometimes a yellow, but ether way they should’ve at least sent Attwell to the monitor. So this game had a few ups and downs for Attwell and VAR.
Spurs VS West Ham (Michael Oliver)
This game was one of the few that went in saint’s favour this weekend, and didn’t have too much to discuss around VAR or Oliver’s decisions. As Spurs had an early penalty shout for a supposed handball against a West Ham defender, but as his hands are down by his sides and are only slightly sticking out due to him being off balance (so are in a natural position) and he’s got very little time to react and moved his hand outta the way as soon as the ball strikes it (so is not intentional), Oliver and VAR were right to not award a penalty to spurs (irrelevant of what the usual clowns on MOTD say).
Other than that there wasn’t much more major decisions for VAR or Oliver to get involved in so a decent game from them.
Weekly conclusion + LOTG quiz
Well last week we’ve seen the media just consistently highlight the officials and VAR’s mistakes from last weekend with the two major mess ups it had, yet I’ve got a slight feeling that it won’t be highlighting the fact that VAR and the PGMOL officials had a really good weekend, with only just 1/2 mistakes, although nether were black and white decisions.
As that’s what can be the most frustrating thing as an official, as the media, fans, coaches etc… will blame you when there may have been any mistakes (and sometimes they’re not mistakes but the correct decisions) in the games, yet whenever the officials have a good game/weekend they get no praise or positives from those groups, yet people wonder why so few wanna be officials and why so many quite, when you’ve got all of this along with all the abuse they get.
But still a really decent gameweek from VAR which they’ve just got to try and keep up now and continue to do.
And now for this gameweek.s questions, which like usual, I’ll post the answers to just before the next post is done…
Although if anyone’s got any "out there” questions to ask, could always use some of them for future quiz questions (had Q3 in one of my games from the weekend).
Q1= A defender for Team A sees an arial ball coming in. There’s just a few team A players around him, but no Team B one’s close enough to challenge or go for where this arial ball is landing. So just before the Team A defender jumps up to header the ball he shouts "leave it” and his teammates do so as he heads the ball. What do you do now?
Q2= Team A are on the attack, their attacker is one on one with the keeper. The keeper is clearly out of his box, and when the Team A striker shoots, sticks out a hand to save and deflect away the shot.
But the shout from Team A was 100% going wide, yet the keeper still saved it with his hands outside his box. What do you give and why?
Q3= Team A keeper catches the ball with his two hands. Whilst telling his teammates to get up the pitch, he releases the ball out of his hands by rolling it onto the ground in front of him. But he then sees a team B attacker come towards him straight away, so as he sees no defenders anywhere near him, quickly picks up the ball again and beats the attacker to it by doing so. What should you give now.