Match Officials Mic’d Up: VAR took seven seconds to agree on Brighton’s controversial penalty decision vs Arsenal | Football News

VAR took just seven seconds to decide Brighton’s controversial penalty against Arsenal was correctly awarded, with PGMOL chief Howard Webb insisting it was a valid decision.

As Arsenal took a 1-0 lead and looked to close the gap on Premier League leaders Liverpool, Joao Pedro and William Saliba collided heads in the box with Anthony Taylor awarded a penalty despite the Gunners defender touching the ball.

VAR upheld the penalty award and Pedro scored to earn Brighton a 1-1 draw.

After the game, Mikel Arteta was “very disappointed” not only with the decision to award a penalty for Saliba’s touch, but also with the time it took the video referee to make the decision.

“When you look at the incident, the distance, the player, Joao Pedro touching the ball, Saliba touching the ball, you can see the contact there.”

Asked if he thought VAR should have overturned the decision, he replied: “If I expect it, I checked and three seconds later they said they already checked it. Looks like it’s fast.”

About the latest release Game Officials Mic’d Up!Footage shows VAR Darren England taking just seven seconds to announce he was looking into the incident, then confirming to referee Taylor that he had made the correct call.

Speaking on the show, Webb agreed with the decision to award the penalty, arguing that Saliba’s touch on the ball was inappropriate because the ball had hit a defender.

According to Webb, Saliba “didn’t play” the ball despite the contact and Pedro “might” have recovered the ball despite Saliba’s intervention, which took the ball away from the Brighton striker.

“That’s late contact by someone who didn’t play the ball,” Webb argued. “The ball hit him, but he didn’t. When you break it like that, it’s a foul.”

While trying to justify the correct decision, Webb claimed Arsenal were awarded a similar penalty last season in the same game when Gabriel Jesus was awarded a penalty despite touching the ball with Tariq Lamptey just before bringing him down in April last year.

“Jesus was still moving on that ball just like Pedro can They moved on that ball,” Webb argued. “There are similarities in terms of that touch, yes, that touch happened, but that doesn’t negate the penalty in both cases. They’re both penalties.”

Timings: Abbreviation

CONTACT: Joao Pedro faced William Saliba

Four seconds later. Anthony Taylor whistles the penalty. “He took his head, the penalty is a decision on the pitch.”

Five seconds later. VAR says: “We are checking the penalty decision on the field.”

A second later. VAR says:

Six seconds later. VAR says: confirming the on-field penalty decision by simply checking the APP (Attack Range Phase)

The VAR then checks to see if there is a foul on Gabriel when collecting Yankubah Minte, then checks to see if Joao Pedro handballed it.

A minute later, when VAR takes another look at the Pedro-Saliba incident and doesn’t see Saliba touching the ball, VAR says: “Confirming the penalty decision on the field.

Webb’s verdict in full

PGMOL Chief Howard Webb.

“I can’t think of anything like that. It means it’s unusual. What you see in this situation is that Pedro is moving the ball up in the air he and Saliba go to the ball and Pedro heads Saliba.

“Saliba hits the ball over his head, then it goes into Pedro’s head. He gets to Pedro late, who goes down.

“It’s late contact from someone who didn’t play the ball himself. The ball hit him, but he didn’t. And Pedro goes down.

“When you break it down like that, it’s a foul. I know it’s counterintuitive, but I’ve heard a lot of people see it that way, it’s late contact from a player who couldn’t play the ball and made contact with a player in the penalty area.” publication.

“If he hits that loose ball first, and there’s a collision, I don’t have a problem with that, then there’s a collision. That’s not what happened.

“Pedro gets there first and heads it to Saliba. Saliba goes into Pedro, the ball hits his head, but then it goes (into Pedro’s path).

“Touching the ball doesn’t negate a possible penalty. We’ve seen other examples where the ball can touch a player but there’s still hard contact and it’s a penalty.”

“If a player cleanly plays the ball away or heads the ball away, you’re looking at something else. That’s not what’s happening here.

“Pedro heads the ball to Saliba, which goes into Pedro and brings him down. That’s why it’s a very supported penalty.”

Rightly or wrongly, Arsenal were awarded a similar penalty against Brighton last season.

Webb and Mic’d Up Match Officials host Michael Owen then discussed a similar incident between these two teams last season.

Last April, Arsenal were awarded a penalty at Brighton where Tarik Lamptey touched the ball and then brought down Gabriel Jesus. The VAR reviewed the decision and agreed with the offside.

“How ironic that the same two teams are in the same place in the same two games,” Webb said.

“It was a penalty against Arsenal, which was fully awarded as such because they saw Jesus hit the ball. Yes, it hit Lampty’s leg, but the consequence brought him down.

“Jesus was still moving on that ball just like Pedro can moved towards that ball. There are similarities in terms of that touch, yes, that touch did happen, but that doesn’t negate the penalty in both cases. They’re both penalties.”

The web discusses more incidents at Match Officials Mic’d Up

Howard Webb also looked at five other Premier League incidents in the latest edition of Match Officials Mic’d Up.Click play on the videos below to hear his thoughts…