Referees were all over the headlines in the Premier League this past weekend due to major and costly VAR mistakes. Three major misses had a pivotal say over the final score of games with significant importance. As a result, Premier League referee chief Howard Webb called a meeting for Tuesday.



The meeting addresses what happened in the West Ham-Chelsea, Brighton-Crystal Palace and the Arsenal-Brentford games. In the first, there was seemingly a clear handball in the box from West Ham’s Tomas Soucek. VAR deemed it not to be a handball, much to the displeasure of Chelsea on Twitter. 



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<div class="ck-twitter"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Tomas Soucek. <a href="https://t.co/1jdH2D5SLM">https://t.co/1jdH2D5SLM</a> <a href="https://t.co/WfENv2lQv1">pic.twitter.com/WfENv2lQv1</a>— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChelseaFC/status/1624531846368317447?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 11, 2023</a></blockquote></div><script async="" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Elsewhere, VAR official John Brooks wrongly disallowed a Brighton goal against Crystal Palace. <a href="https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/12810079/referee-john-brooks-replaced-for-liverpool-vs-everton-after-var-error-which-denied-brighton-goal-at-crystal-palace" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brooks drew the offside lines incorrectly</a>, and the goal did not stand. If Brooks drew the lines correctly from Mark Guéhi, the goal would have stood. Then, in Arsenal’s game against Brentford, VAR official Lee Mason only looked at one Brentford player’s position, Ethan Pinnock, who was onside. Christian Nørgaard, who played the ball in the buildup to Ivan Toney’s equalizer, was offside. The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/feb/13/premier-league-officials-meeting-var-errors-howard-webb-arsenal-brighton" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">goal should not have counted</a>.



As a result of Mason’s blunder, Arsenal dropped points again, shrinking the lead at the top of the table to three with a game against Manchester City on Wednesday.



<h2>Referee meeting to address VAR mistakes in Premier League</h2>



John Brooks, the VAR official for the Brighton-Palace game, had the same role for Monday’s Merseyside Derby between Everton and Liverpool and Wednesday’s Arsenal-City fixture. However, the referee body removed Brooks from those assignments. In his stead, Andre Marriner and David Coote will be the VAR officials, respectively.



Howard Webb is an advocate for VAR. Still, he admits that he holds his officials to a higher standard. The meeting on Tuesday will go over the most recent calamities, while also deciding the referee assignments for the upcoming weekend’s set of games. 



These three mistakes are not the first instances of <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/2022/09/03/david-moyes-fumes-at-disputed-var-decision/">VAR being the headline</a> following key games. The offside ruling in the Manchester derby for Bruno Fernandes’s goal was certainly a hot topic, as was Gabriel Martinelli’s opener against Manchester United. 



PHOTO: IMAGO / PA Images

Three separate VAR mistakes at the weekend forced Premier League officials to call an emergency meeting on the topic.

Premier League referees to meet after weekend of VAR mistakes

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West Ham United continued their impressive form at the weekend. Diafra Sakho has been a key factor in the Hammers success and he scored the second goal in their 2-1 win over the reigning champions Manchester City. The use of goal line technology was crucial in the awarding of the goal. Joe Hart saved the shot behind the line, which was highlighted by the goal-line detection system. It has been a superb addition to the league in the past year, a massive success that&nbsp;is taking pressure off the officials and ensuring the correct decisions are being made.
Chelsea were denied a first half penalty first half in the league leaders’ 1-1 draw at Old Trafford for what were two clear fouls. One from <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/2014/10/27/chelsea-captain-john-terry-unhappy-with-treatment-from-manchester-united/">Chris Smalling on Branislav Ivanovic and the other from Marcos Rojo on John Terry</a>. Both United players had their Chelsea counterparts in a headlock. How Phil Dowd missed both, I don’t know. The inconsistencies with fouls from set pieces is a real problem. Only last week, Michael Oliver penalized Ryan Shawcross for a foul on Wilfried Bony. There needs to be a clear statement and consistency from the officials. Either let it all go, or keep penalizing it until it stops. The latter is what I would hope for.
Ivanovic was shown two yellow cards by Dowd. Both cautions were shown after fouls on <a href="https://worldsoccertalk.com/2014/10/05/diego-costa-and-angel-di-maria-are-having-immediate-impacts-in-england/">Angel Di Maria</a> deep in the Chelsea half. The first of which was harsh in my view. His arm comes across the Argentine, who went down easily. Having said that, I wasn’t surprised to see Dowd produce the card as he is one of the strictest&nbsp;referees.
The second yellow was less harsh. The Serbian international tripped Di Maria after the ball had gone and as he was already on a yellow, so he had to go. He was unfortunate with the first, but not so with the second. It cost the Blues as the resulting free kick brought a late equalizer.
There was an incident packed game at The Hawthorns between West Bromwich Albion and Crystal Palace. Palace opened the scoring through Brede Hangeland. West Brom claimed that Foster was impeded, but to me, it was a perfectly good goal, unlike West Brom’s first goal, which was ridiculous and should not have stood. Palace’s keeper, Speroni, was elbowed to the ground after Craig Dawson attacked the ball. It was an obvious foul that&nbsp;should have been picked out by Mark Clattenburg.
Between those incidents, Palace had one penalty appeal turned down and another one given. The turned down appeal was a poor decision from the referee. Wilfried Zaha was chopped down by Dawson – a clear penalty. Clattenburg’s assistant gave Palace a spot kick&nbsp;moments later when Sebastien Pocognoli brought down Yannick Bolasie. This, again was a clear foul. Finally in this controversy filled game, Mile Jedinak fouled Victor Anichebe in the area for the game’s third penalty – Clattenburg got this one right.
Neil Warnock was unhappy with the referee and made his feelings known after the game. I understand his passion and frustration, but his continuous moaning is starting to become a little irritating.

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Premier League referees to meet after weekend of VAR mistakes

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Reviewing The Premier League’s Key Refereeing Decisions From Week 9