Bitterness, Buffoonery, Bravery?—How the Soccer World Reacted to Arsenal’s VAR Reprieve

Plenty of words have already been spilled about the hotly controversial VAR decision to deny West Ham United a stoppage-time equalizer against Arsenal on Sunday. There will be a lot more to follow but few will be able to capture the violent bundle of emotions inspired by one moment quite like Mikel Arteta’s reaction.

“Phwoar.”

Arsenal’s manager was able to articulate his view on the alleged foul committed by West Ham forward Pablo on his goalkeeper David Raya a little more traditionally once the cocktail of feelings from Sunday’s 1–0 win had subsided. Unsurprisingly, his stance that it was a “clear foul” wasn’t universally shared.

West Ham Lodge ‘Official Complaint’

The overriding reaction from the embittered West Ham camp was crystallized by three words from the beaten side’s captain Jarrow Bowen. “Where’s the consistency?” he asked BBC Sport.

“Corners are physical. The Premier League is physical. That’s why everyone loves it. You have to expect contact at corners. If you give that you have to give all the holding calls in the world and that’s not the way people want the game to go down.

“I don’t want to sound bitter but last week we had one with Tomáš Souček held at Brentford and we didn’t get a penalty. But then you can’t give one like that today.”

Hammers manager Nuno Espírito Santo echoed the same sentiment, admitting that he was “upset” by a “lack of consistency.”

Mads Hermansen, the West Ham goalkeeper who was jostling with Raya and Pablo during the stoppage-time corner, offered an intriguing insight into the world of crowded penalty areas which face the Premier League’s gloved figures every game.

“If you ask any goalkeeper in the league if he’s been illegally blocked, pulled, pushed on corners this season, you will not find anyone who has not experienced this,” Hermansen fumed to The Athletic. “So, to give it today, I’m not sure I understand why. The referee did not explain why when I went to him. We watched it afterwards and we can see there’s short pulls on [Konstantinos] Mavropanos, Souček and Pablo before the goal.

“You can give the foul on the goalkeeper, fine. But what has been given during this season of goals with illegal blocks, illegal pulls and pushing on goalkeepers. I don’t understand why it’s given today.”

West Ham are expected to express their frustration as an institution by contacting the governing body for Premier League referees, per BBC Sport. The Hammers are in search of the audio between referee Chris Kavanagh and VAR Darren England as well as further explanation from PGMO.

Time Taken to Disallow West Ham Goal

Why Raya Foul Was Given and Arsenal Grappling Ignored?

The quest for consistency is a plight which has never been successfully achieved across soccer’s century-long existence. As long as decisions are made by different humans (with or without the assistance of technology) there is going to be variation.

More interesting is the point raised by Hermansen about the supposed fouls committed by Arsenal players amid the melee. Declan Rice was spotted tangling with Crysencio Summerville after the contact on Raya, so that could be swiftly discounted, yet Leandro Trossard appeared to have a hold of Pablo’s shirt at the same time the forward was clutching the Arsenal goalkeeper.

In a little known wrinkle of the rulebook, VAR is advised to “prioritize the offense which has a material impact on the play,” as outlined by BBC Sport’s Dale Johnson.

Had an Arsenal player clearly committed a foul before the forearm on Raya, Callum Wilson’s goal would have been ruled out regardless and a penalty awarded instead. In that scenario, the foul on Raya would have brought an end to any advantage being played after the supposed original Arsenal offense.

Mikel Arteta Makes Interesting Point Amid Predictable Bias

Shock horror, Arteta agreed with a decision that immensely benefited his team’s title challenge. However, it was interesting that the Gunners boss was at pains to hail the “bravery” of the officiating team to make an unpopular decision to deny the home side.

“[It’s] a call from the refs that I think is very brave,” Arteta argued.

“Today I have to praise them, at least for giving the option to a referee to decide. Away from the lights and the chaos, to give clarity to him to make the right call. And when you look at the action in that way, I think it is an obvious error.

“It is a free kick and the goal has to be disallowed. So congratulations because they made a big call in very, very difficult circumstances.”

Punditry in Uneasy Unity

The overriding reaction across TV studios was one of uneasy unity. Everyone largely accepted that Raya had been fouled. “The one thing you say when you go up, VAR are going to check everything, do not put your hands on the goalkeeper!” ex-Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane told Sky Sports.

“Certainly don’t leave it on for three or four seconds. There is all sorts going on but because the goalkeeper had such a big part to play, I think it is a foul.”

Wayne Rooney called it “a clear foul” on his self-titled podcast. “I think you can clearly see the arm crosses his face and it impacts him getting to the ball. So I think it’s the right decision. It’s the one time I actually think VAR has done a really good job in such an important game.”

BBC’s Match of the Day made a point of highlighting how Pablo had a hold of Raya’s forearm while his teammate Jean-Clair Todibo was also pulling the goalkeeper’s shirt. The show’s former pundit Gary Lineker wasn’t quite so convinced on his own podcast The Rest Is Football.

“If I was a West Ham fan—or, indeed, a Manchester City fan—I think I’d be a little bit angry tonight,” he reasoned. “Because there was a lot of fouling going on at that corner, there was a lot of grappling by Arsenal players on the West Ham attackers ... I know it was probably a foul on [Raya] but do you not then look at before, when people are being held, which is probably more an obvious foul?”

Former Manchester City defender Micah Richards weighed in as the wise head of the debate: “It depends what camp you’re in. If you’re in Man City’s camp, you’re saying it’s not a foul and [at] Arsenal, you’re saying it’s a foul. It’s as simple as that.”

How This VAR Decision Could Impact the Laws of the Game

While it’s widely accepted that Arsenal benefitted from a correct implementation of the laws of the game, this VAR intervention has sparked speculation that those regulations must be changed.

The sport’s lawmakers are expected to discuss how to combat the rise of penalty-box grappling at the next possible availability, the Press Association reported (via ESPN). However, these discussions can’t take place until the autumn, so no changes will be decided upon until after this summer’s World Cup and may not be enforced until the 2027–28 season.

In the quest for a solution to the scrum of bodies at corners, memorably christened the “meat wall” by Michael Caley, former Premier League and World Cup final assistant referee Darren Cann offered a bold proposal.

“I feel that the time has come now for a law change whereby no attackers are allowed in the six yard box before the corner is taken,” Cann explained on Match of the Day. “At goal kicks, forwards are not allowed in the penalty area, but corners, they shouldn’t be allowed in the six yard box until the ball is in play.

“Lots of teams grapple at corners, sometimes before the ball has come into play, and then obviously the referee can’t give a penalty, can’t give an indirect free kick if the ball is not in play. So this would create that natural separation and eradicate these kind of situations.”

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