The Premier League have replaced John Brooks as the VAR for Arsenal's Premier League clash against Manchester City on Wednesday.
Brooks was on VAR duty at the weekend during Brighton's 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace, accidentally drawing the offside lines on the wrong player for Palace's goal. And it wasn't the only VAR howler on Saturday, with Lee Mason forgetting to draw the relevant offside lines in the build-up to Brentford's equaliser against Arsenal.
Bees midfielder Christian Norgaard, who assisted Toney, was actually offside, resulting in the PGMOL releasing a statement which 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.”
READ MORE: PGMOL chief Howard Webb calls urgent referee meeting as VAR blunder costs Arsenal in title race
Now, as per journalist James Benge, Brooks will no longer be on VAR duty for the Gunners' potentially title-defining clash against City on Wednesday evening. Benge's tweet read: "John Brooks has been replaced as VAR for Arsenal vs. Manchester City and tonight's Merseyside derby.
"Andre Marriner and David Coote will assume VAR duties in his place tonight and Wednesday respectively." Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was far from impressed by Mason's aforementioned error, voicing his frustrations after the full-time whistle.
“I just looked back and it is offside,” Arteta said after the match. “Have they explained why it wasn’t allowed? No. It is frustrating but they will probably give an explanation later in the week. Today we haven’t 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 so then you don’t hold the [defensive] line that high. Because you’re always going to have an advantage if you get blocked. You cannot block if you are offside.”
The north London outfit now sit just three points ahead of second-placed City in the current standings, although they have a game in hand on Pep Guardiola's side.
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