Richard Keys believes Trent Alexander-Arnold would have been sent off on the weekend if it were not for incompetent officiating by the video assistant referee.
Alexander-Arnold was involved in a contentious incident in Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Tottenham in the Premier League on Sunday. Spurs thought they should have been awarded a penalty in the first half when Ryan Sessegnon was knocked over in the penalty area by a clumsy challenge from Alexander-Arnold.
Referee Andy Madley waved away Tottenham’s protests and the VAR, Darren England, decided the incident was not worthy of a second look on the pitchside monitor. The call came a day after Manchester City full-back Joao Cancelo was shown a red card for shoulder barging Fulham forward Harry Wilson off the ball to concede a spot-kick.
Keys, who now works for beIN SPORTS after being sacked by Sky Sports, has two major bugbears which he regularly hits out against: Mikel Arteta’s inability to stay in his technical area and VAR. After banging the drum about the former on Sunday, Keys has now addressed the latter.
Keys wrote in his blog : "TAA loses both concentration and his mind and rolls Sessegnon over in exactly the same way that Cancelo had Wilson. There‘s no difference between the two challenges. If anything TAA’s is worse. It’s got to be a pen. And TAA should really go off. There was no attempt to play the ball.
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"Ok, Andy Madley didn’t see it so VAR will have a look and at the very minimum ask Madley to review it surely? I hear myself shouting ‘come on guys. This is easy. Darren England made this same call yesterday’. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Strange. So I have a look at who’s in VAR. You know what’s coming don’t you? Yep. Darren England.
"This time he’s sitting on his hands. Why? Did he think he was wrong at City? No-one did on the day or he’d have been asked to review his own decision. So what happened? It’s incredible. The only consistent thing about VAR is it’s [sic] inconsistency.
"I understand that when so many [of] these calls are a matter of opinion. I’ve said before - that’s why VAR will always let us down - because most of these calls are about opinions - but come on.
"This was the same guy. How on earth can he see two incidents - exactly the same incidents - differently 24 hours apart? Incredible."
VAR is a regular complaint for many football fans, but Keys’ preoccupation with Arteta’s touchline behaviour is a more niche pursuit. On Saturday he tweeted: "Why is this allowed every week @FA_PGMOL? Arteta has been jumping up & down all game - way outside his technical area. Potter is in his & 4th is watching. Do something about this man."
