Gary Neville has come to the defence of referees and to some extent, VAR too, after the controversy that overshadowed the Manchester United vs Arsenal and Chelsea vs West Ham games this weekend.
Premier League game week 6 in 2022/23 will be remembered for all the VAR controversy that occurred during multiple fixtures. Not only the two aforementioned fixtures but also incidents during Newcastle vs Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest vs AFC Bournemouth had referees at Stockley Park struggling to get the right decision.
In the Blues' win in the London derby, the general consensus was that Maxwel Cornet's late equaliser for the Hammers should have stood. This is despite both Thomas Tuchel and Graeme Souness pushing back against the claims that the technology in this incidence helped produce a 'scandalous' outcome, according to both Declan Rice and David Moyes.
READ MORE: Graeme Souness agrees with Thomas Tuchel on controversial VAR decision during Chelsea v West Ham
Fast forward one day and the decision to rule out Gabriel Martinelli's opening goal during Man United vs Arsenal received mixed reviews. Not as heated as the Chelsea vs West Ham one but the controversy that followed all these incidents' has caused the Premier League to take urgent action.
The refereeing board PGMOL is looking at how the technology was used for the two decisions made in the Saturday 3 pm games. But it isn't just this week whereby the technology has been heavily criticised.
During Chelsea's recent 2-2 draw with Tottenham, decisions involving Marc Cucurella and Kai Havertz went against the west Londoners in controversial fashion, with Harry Kane scoring an injury-time goal for Spurs to earn a point.
With all of this taken into consideration, Neville has urged fans not to get on the back the referees too much as he believes it was just a very 'bad' weekend for the officials at Stockley Park, whilst also claiming that the quality of on-field refereeing has been good for the large parts of the early games of 2022/23.
"I thought last season it would all settle down, people accepted that there were teething problems with VAR in that first year," Neville told Sky Sports in the latest podcast. "They were meant to get over and use it better. I think the on-field refereeing is very, very good.
"Why would I say that by the way? I've been complaining about referees for many years. I don't need to say that. I think the on-field refereeing, the speed of that game that we are watching, the incident with Eriksen and Odegaard. We have to watch that three or four times. They are having to watch that in real-time. So the idea that they should get every decision on the pitch correct, they get a lot right. And I have to say that the standard of refereeing is really good. That's the first thing to say.
"However, VAR has had a very very bad weekend. And it's brought it back into the fore. And the people who are very against it and the people who think it destroys the ethos of the game, they now have something to go on against, so it won't go away."
Neville then went on to site historical examples with Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger which he believes show that VAR is important to have in the Premier League once all the teething problems are dealt with and the usage is improved over time.
He added: "But Martin [Tyler], we forget the amount of times that VAR is right with offsides and other decisions where we take it for granted. There are always going to be those subjective ones where they got thrown other to the side of the pitch. There is always going to be those."
Chelsea and Arsenal fans- Do you agree with Gary Neville's assessment of the refereeing standards in this country and his positive outlook on VAR going forward? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!
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