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Premier League referees’ chief Howard Webb has backed the decision to overturn Arsenal‘s penalty against Newcastle on Sunday through a VAR review, calling it a “clear error” by the referee.
Jarred Gillett had awarded a spot kick to Arsenal in the 15th minute when he judged that Viktor Gyökeres had been brought down in the area by Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope.
The decision was changed after an intervention by the VAR, Darren England.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was unhappy after his side’s 2-1 victory.
“There are a few things we can speak about, for example the penalty,” Arteta said. “For me if we have VAR it is for a clear and obvious error and the fact that it took the ref that long to decide shows it is not a clear and obvious error.
“If it’s not a clear and obvious error, VAR should not intervene. We’ve been told this for a few years, this style of decision again, and for me, it’s very clear that it doesn’t have to intervene because it’s a penalty.”
Webb disagrees, and he explained that because Gillett had not seen that Pope had got a touch on the ball before he collided with Gyökeres, that did constitute a clear and obvious error and cancelling the penalty was the right call.
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“The VAR checks the penalty,” Webb said on the Premier League’s Match Officials Mic’d Up show.
“When he does that, he clearly sees that Gyökeres gets to the ball, pokes it a little bit forward but then, importantly, Nick Pope also gets a very clear touch on the ball as he steps forward with that right foot and deviates the direction that the ball is going in. That hadn’t been appreciated on the field by the referee.
“Pope then plants his foot on the ground, he doesn’t drive it forward into Gyökeres. There’s clearly a gap between the two players after Pope has played the ball and then the two players come together quite normally.
“The action by Pope is normal, it’s not reckless, it’s just a kick out towards the ball, the ball deviates, no contact on the player until the ball has been played away and then the contact happens fairly normally so not a foul and therefore a good use of the VAR to intervene to show the referee what really happened.
“I think the deviation is quite clear. You’ll see that touch by Gyökeres, then you’ll see Pope’s right leg come in.
“It touches the ball, it moves the ball away in a different direction to the direction it was previously going in. When he then puts his foot on the ground having made contact with the ball, there’s a separation between him and Gyökeres. There’s no contact at that point. The contact only happens after Pope has played the ball.
“So, it’s a good challenge by Pope, it’s not a foul and there was an important part around this in that the referee didn’t recognise that touch by Pope in real time, hence the reason that when the VAR saw it, he deemed it to be a clear and obvious error, because that touch by Pope hadn’t been seen and therefore the referee could go to the screen to look at that really important aspect and make a judgement for himself and that judgement was, yes, I’ve seen the touch and therefore it’s not a foul and I’m going to start with a dropped ball.
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“We work with referee’s call, it’s an important principle in the Premier League where the call will be made on the field by the referee. It’ll only get overturned if, when the VAR looks at the footage, he sees no reason at all to support the decision, there’s no mix of considerations and it’s a clear error.
“In this one, when you see Pope reach out with that foot, play the ball cleanly without making any contact with the opponent, in fact he doesn’t really make contact with the opponent, they come together as a normal consequence of that clean challenge by Pope.
“The referee hadn’t recognised that touch, it was important that the VAR saw it and deemed it was a clear error and I agree with the VAR’s intervention.
“So, the referee can go to the screen, look at the full sequence, see that touch and see that there was a normal playing action by Pope and the penalty was rightly cancelled.”
