Arsenal’s win over Nottingham Forest again highlighted two VAR issues the Premier League have been slow to address over the last few years.
Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest on Saturday papered over the cracks for the matchday officials, with many fans complaining about referee Simon Hooper and his selection of yellow cards.
Hooper was quick to hand out bookings in the first half, with three Arsenal players receiving yellows despite only committing four fouls as a team.
Then, when Hooper had the chance to show a second yellow to Ola Aina in the second half, he used his discretion and kept his cards in his pocket. A luxury Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice likely wish they’d been given a couple of months ago.
But there were two bigger issues with the officiating, and they’re both VAR problems that should have been addressed years ago.
The first was in relation to semi-automated offside technology, or the lack thereof. Technology that has now existed in many top leagues for over two years, but still isn’t in use in England.
Arsenal’s Jurrien Timber believed he’d scored the opening goal of the game in the fifth minute of the match, turning home a rebound after Mikel Merino’s headed effort had been saved.
But a full two minutes and 40 seconds later, the VAR officials finally determined that Merino had been offside from the initial free-kick.
Semi-automated offside technology was supposed to be in place by now, reducing the length of these delays significantly.
That’s the deadline the Premier League set themselves, informing the public in August that the new system was “expected to be ready to be used from after one of the autumn international breaks”.
The September break passed, then the October, and now the November, with no progress. In fact, reports now suggest the technology has been delayed until at least the new year, with some club figures fearing it won’t be implemented at all this season.
The second VAR issue was highlighted much later in the match, when Nottingham Forest scored an offside goal of their own. Despite the offside being obvious to the naked eye on the first replay, the game was held up for over a minute for a VAR check.
Except the VAR wasn’t checking the offside during most of that time. They were instead assessing a potential red card for Callum Hudson-Odoi’s challenge on William Saliba.
In this case, the VAR failing was that this was never communicated to the fans in the stadium. Those watching on TV knew what was being checked, but the in-person fans were never informed.
Despite plenty of talk about new systems and processes to communicate with fans in the ground, the supporters paying to attend are still being kept in the dark on the big decisions.
For a matchgoing fan at the Emirates Stadium this weekend, it just seemed like another frustratingly long offside check. There was no message on the big screen to inform them otherwise, and any communication over the loudspeakers remains absent from Premier League football.
Arsenal fans have had plenty of cause to complain about referees this season, but Saturday’s match was a reminder that the people in charge are making things even more difficult than they need to be.
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