Gunners fans can consider themselves exceedingly fortunate, since it was later revealed that VAR Lee Mason had neglected to draw offside lines for Brentford’s goal in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with the Bees.
Leandro Trossard, a January acquisition for Mikel Arteta’s squad, broke the stalemate after 66 minutes of play at the Emirates Stadium. But just eight minutes later, Brentford’s Ivan Toney scored a header to tie the game for the visitors.
Toney may have scored, but his goal shouldn’t have stood because Christian Norgaard was offside when they set up the play. The Daily Mail reports that VAR Lee Mason made a significant mistake when evaluating the goal because he failed to draw on the essential lines. This has severely hampered the Gunners’ chances of winning the Premier League.
Former Premier League official and current PGMOL representative Chris Foy explained that VAR was checking for offside and whether or not Ethan Pinnock had blocked off Gabriel in the buildup. After reviewing the situation, he concluded that no foul had been committed, hence Peter Bankes had not made an egregious mistake in his officiating.
However, Christian Norgaard, whose cross Toney heads in, was out of position before the goal was scored. However, VAR didn’t do a thorough job checking out the lines.
It was just impossible to get the lines to fall. This is an example of human fallibility. If the lines had collapsed, the goal would have been disallowed as an offside.
As a result of the mistake made by the VAR, Arsenal now has a six-point lead in the league standings over second-place Manchester City, who will host Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday. On Wednesday night, a monumental match in the title race pits Pep Guardiola’s squad against the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium in north London.
