Brentford’s controversial equaliser against Arsenal was wrongly allowed to stand after VAR official Lee Mason failed to draw the correct offside lines.
Premier League leaders Arsenal had been ahead 1-0 at Emirates Stadium on Saturday and were set to move eight points clear of title rivals Manchester City at the summit.
The Bees, however, cancelled out Leandro Trossard’s opener through Ivan Toney, but it has since come to light that the goal should not have stood.
Mason was on VAR duty for the game and examined whether a block from Brentford defender Ethan Pinnock on Gabriel constituted offside.
He did not, however, fully investigate whether Christian Norgaard was in an offside position when he crossed for Toney to equalise. It is understood the incident was looked at, but not with the use of the offside lines.
The mistake has been put down to human error, however it could have a big impact on Arsenal’s title hopes.
City can close the gap to three points on Sunday if they beat Aston Villa and could then overtake Arsenal by winning at the Emirates on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta was upset with the officials after his side dropped more points after last week’s loss to Everton, arguing that Toney’s goal should have been ruled out.
The Arsenal manager believed Pinnock should have been flagged for offside as he was impeding Gabriel.
“I just looked back and it is offside,” said Arteta. “They will probably give an explanation later in the week but today we have not got one.
“You have to apply certain principles in defending and you do that by sticking to the rules. Suddenly you change the rules, and then you have to change your principles.
“So, tell us before. Then you don’t hold the line that high, because you are always going to have a disadvantage if you get blocked.”
Saturday was a very bad day at the office for VAR, with Brighton’s Pervis Estupinan also denied a goal in the draw against rivals Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park due to human error that saw the offside lines drawn from the wrong defender.
Chelsea also looked to have a blatant penalty waved away after a handball by Tomas Soucek in their draw at West Ham at the London Stadium.
