football.london reviews the big decisions by the officials after Arsenal’s dramatic 0-1 win over West Ham United in the Premier League, including the disallowed Callum Wilson goal, the ruling which VAR used to negate the late equaliser and comparisons being argued against it.
Arsenal took their supporters through yet another emotional ringer after securing a dramatic win at West Ham United. But the game included what is being coined as the biggest video assistant refereeing incident in Premier League history, and it surely is.
It has sparked massive online discourse, and sadly, what could be argued as bad-faith suggestions, too. The ominous realisation that Arsenal might end up Premier League champions seems to have clouded some judgments on these matters.
In retrospect, football.london’s Arsenal reporter Tom Canton takes a look at each incident to decipher what happened and whether any mistakes were made.
Callum Wilson disallowed goal
The magnitude of this call has changed my mind on how I view certain assessments of decisions by VAR. Often, we criticise the length of time it takes to come to these decisions, but with the hectic nature of the situation, the volume of events in the box, and what it meant for both teams so late in the game warranted the extra length of time to adjudge the call and it came to be the right decision was made.
The corner comes in, and David Raya is prevented from catching the ball with Pablo’s left arm, both across the keeper and, crucially, grabbing hold of his left arm. Todibo is also grabbing hold of the right side of Raya’s shirt, which could have warranted a foul, too.
There are other incidents too. Declan Rice on Dinos Mavropanos, Tomas Soucek on Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard grappling too. But as Dermot Gallagher explained on Ref Watch on Sky Sports, the foul on Raya is what happens first and so it overrides every other incident.
FL review: This was the right decision, 100%. I understand that similar incidents may have happened where goals have been given, but the key thing is that incidents exactly like this have, in my view, happened only once, and the same outcome was reached in that case, which will be discussed in due course.
The frustration is in how the incident has been covered in the wake of the game. I can empathise with the frustration over the consistency of other goals that have stood, but what cannot be litigated is the suggestion that this goal should stand.
That is just a bad-faith argument, and I would argue that if this occurred in a mid-table clash with two sides fighting for far less, the energy to see the goal stand would just not exist in anything like what we have seen in the last 24 hours.
FL verdict: Correct decision. No goal.
Gabriel vs Aston Villa and Calafiori vs Manchester United
These are the two examples which are being talked about as reasons to allow the goal to stand. But this is where the bad-faith argument again comes into play.
The argument should, firstly, not be; the goal should stand; instead, these goals should not have been allowed to; that is the key distinction. Two wrongs do not make a right.
Notice that I do not say three wrongs because, in the case of Riccardo Calafiori’s goal at Manchester United, which sees Altay Bayindir against William Saliba, it was rightly deemed at the time that there was not enough happening for the goal to be ruled out. Bayindir should have been much stronger; it’s a contact sport, and the United defenders are not getting Saliba away from Bayindir, nor is the keeper doing more to fight to win that ball.
The Gabriel on Emi Martinez example has more credence, but even then, there is such a strong case that there isn’t any grabbing or holding. Gabriel wins the header, and Martinez doesn’t get to the ball despite having the advantage of being able to use his hands. But again, if this was indeed a mistake, it should not be; then a later example is allowed to stand to balance the scales, and the right decision is then made every time following.
Ben White vs Leicester
So far, the only example I have been shown of a player impeding the goalkeeper by holding them was from around three years ago. Ironically and perhaps unsurprisingly, it also includes Arsenal.
In February 2023, an Arsenal goal was ruled out after a brilliant strike by Leandro Trossard found the net. The Belgian picked up the ball after Danny Ward had punched the ball clear from a Bukayo Saka corner.
However, replays showed that Ward was impeded as White held Ward’s right hand. The goal was disallowed.
So if the argument is for consistency, this clearly shows it’s being applied.
