The video assistant referee was unable to check whether Bukayo Saka was offside in the build-up to Gabriel Martinelli’s opener in Arsenal's win over Liverpool on Sunday due to a rare technical problem.
Martinelli opened the scoring for the Gunners inside the opening minute after being played through on goal by Martin Odegaard. But the move began when Benjamin White played in Saka down the right-hand side, when the latter may have been standing in an offside position.
Saka was running back towards the ball in an effort to stay onside when White played the ball, but Hawk-Eye, who provide the technology for the VAR system, was unable to determine definitively whether he was onside or offside. According to ESPN, Saka was out of view of all five of Hawk-Eye’s cameras which are calibrated to work out offside decisions.
The linesman on the near side kept his flag down and once the goal was given by referee Michael Oliver, the officials had no way of determining for sure whether Saka had committed an infringement. Therefore, the on-field decision stood, despite Saka looking very close to the line of the last defender, Trent Alexander-Arnold.
This is not the first time such an issue has occurred this season. Juventus saw a late winner against Salernitana ruled out by VAR for offside because Hawk-Eye did not notice that Antonio Candreva was out of the picture playing the whole Juventus team onside.
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As it happened, the possible offside against Saka was not one of the most contentious decisions in Arsenal ’s 3-2 win at Emirates Stadium. Jurgen Klopp was furious in his post-match press conference after two calls went against his side.
Liverpool did not earn a penalty when the ball struck Gabriel’s hand inside the penalty area, but were punished when Gabriel Jesus went down following contact from Thiago. Saka scored the resulting penalty in the 76th minute to give Mikel Arteta’s side the win, return them to top spot in the league and leave Liverpool languishing in 10th, 14 points behind.
“We know in life if two refs think the same that is the truth and we have to live with,” said Klopp, speaking about the Jesus penalty decision. “If I see the situation back, if there was contact - and I’m not sure there was contact but there might have been soft contact - the player (Jesus) was again on both feet and then down.
“That’s an indication that something might have been made up - but not for the refs. They thought it’s a clear not a handball in the first half when Diogo Jota put the ball on Gabriel’s arm. We cannot change that.
“A couple of things went against us but we are not blind, we see we could have done better in moments. In general it was a good away game against a good side. We caused them a lot of problems but stand here with no points.”
