After going to punch a free kick in the second half but missing the ball and taking down Gabriel Jesus, Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez escaped punishment.
Although Arsenal was unexpectedly denied a penalty, Leandro Trossard’s equalizer in the 84th minute allowed them to salvage a point.
Andre Onana, the goalkeeper for Manchester United, narrowly avoided a similar occurrence during his team’s 1-0 victory over Wolves at Old Trafford earlier this season when he attempted to punch the ball clear but instead ran into Sasa Kalajdzic.
Following this, PGMOL director Howard Webb expressed regret to Wolves for the VAR team’s lapse and stated his intention to ‘acknowledge clear errors’ this year.
In reference to the Onana incident from last month, Webb remarked, “I think from the outset I want to say that should have led to an intervention by VAR.”
We hear the VAR in this case during the checking phase after the penalty has not been given, and he is outlining what he saw, including Onana coming out and making contact with Kalajdzic of Wolves.
‘[The VAR] starts to move in the direction of, I suppose, proposing a video review, but he then slightly overthinks it. The VARs can do that occasionally. They are attempting to determine what a clear and evident error is and what the game would not anticipate.
And he is aware that occasionally this might happen without it being a foul when he watches these two guys collide. He eventually views this as a coming together, a collision of two players, and decides not to intervene because it’s pretty intriguing that neither Onana nor Kalajdzic play the ball in this particular instance.
The Wolves player is struck by Onana in this instance, which makes a difference. Just springing up, Kalajdzic is avoiding Onana. In other words, one player is going into the other; two players are not coming together.
“We did not advise a review.” We ought to have. We admit that was a mistake, which was obviously disappointing. Naturally, we used the lessons we learned from it to attempt and prevent a similar mistake from happening in the future.
We believe it’s critical to acknowledge obvious mistakes. When something is as obvious as this, we don’t want others to compare it to it. This was obviously improper, and if it happens again the following week, we anticipate punishment. Therefore, I believe it is only appropriate that we admit mistakes when they occur, acknowledge that something was incorrect, and anticipate seeing something different the next time.
Alan Shearer, a former Newcastle United and England striker, thinks Arsenal was wrongfully penalized against Chelsea.
They ought to have received [a penalty]. There is no question,” On BBC Match of the Day, Shearer stated.
Sanchez has just emerged, and Jesus kills him.
The fact that he hits him in the head is crucial in my opinion. Look, he just breezes right by him here. It is an awful challenge.
“How in the world can the referee and VAR both not think that’s a penalty?” He is far from the ball.