VAR continues to do the very opposite of the technology’s supposed function: it creates controversy rather than eradicating it. Manchester City enter the international break with a maximum 12 points, though this fourth win of the season was hardly the champions at their smoothest, despite Erling Haaland scoring his fifth Premier League hat-trick, and it turned on a second goal that restored their lead and left Fulham furious.
From Phil Foden’s corner, a Nathan Aké header flew in, going past Manuel Akanji who leaped over it from an offside position and appeared to be “in the line of vision” (making this an infringement, the law states) of Fulham’s goalkeeper, Bernd Leno. But Tony Harrington, the VAR, ruled Akanji was not impeding Leno and he had also judged the Swiss not to have touched the ball (another potential illegality).
