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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Josh O'Brien

Bungling Premier League VAR official in line for Merseyside derby and Arsenal vs Man City

John Brooks, the VAR official whose error marred Crystal Palace's meeting with Brighton on Saturday, is currently scheduled to oversee both Monday night's Merseyside derby and Wednesday's title showdown between Arsenal and Manchester City.

Brooks sparked controversy when he chalked off a goal for the Seagulls after making an offside judgement. However, it has since emerged he drew the offside line from the wrong defender and arguably cost Roberto De Zerbi's men all three points.

It was a disastrous weekend for VAR, with Arsenal's game against Brentford also blighted by a ridiculous gaffe. Ivan Toney's equaliser was allowed to stand despite Christian Norgaard being in an offside position when he assisted the goal.

Fans now know that Lee Mason forgot to draw the right lines to determine whether their had been an offside in the build-up to the Bees' goal.

Former Premier League referee Howard Webb has since taken over as head of the PGMOL, the group of officials who take charge of all FA competitions. It is has been reported that Webb was left furious over the two huge VAR mistakes.

There are now rumours that both Brooks and Mason could be taken off duty for the next round of Premier League fixtures, but as things stand the former is still down to to oversee Liverpool's meeting with local rivals Everton and a potential title decider at the Emirates two days later.

Pervis Estupinan had his goal against Crystal Palace wrongly ruled out for offisde (Getty Images)

HAVE YOUR SAY! Should John Brooks be taken off of VAR duty for Monday and Wednesday's games? Comment below

This is despite the fact that the PGMOL have issued a statement acknowledging the two glaring errors made over the weekend.

It read: "PGMOL can confirm its Chief Refereeing Officer Howard Webb has contacted both Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion to acknowledge and explain the significant errors in the VAR process in their respective Premier League fixtures on Saturday.

"Both incidents, which were due to human error and related to the analysis of offside situations, are being thoroughly reviewed by PGMOL."

A Brighton spokesman has since also confirmed that the PGMOL had apologised to them following the error for Pervis Estupinan's goal.

"As was confirmed to the club by PGMOL, a serious error was made in disallowing Pervis Estupinian's goal at Crystal Palace yesterday afternoon," they said.

"The lines drawn in the VAR room to determine whether Pervis was in an offside position were drawn incorrectly, and the goal should have stood. While hugely disappointed by the error, the club's accepted PGMOL's apology and will not be making any further comment."

Brighton's statement will make for uncomfortable reading for the likes of Liverpool and Everton, who will fear another high-profile blunder could await either of them under Brooks' watch if he remains in the VAR hot-seat on Monday night.

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