Arsenal can count themselves extremely unlucky after it emerged that Video Assistant Referee Lee Mason forgot to draw the offside lines for Brentford's goal during Saturday's 1-1 draw with the Bees.
Mikel Arteta's side found it difficult to break down the west Londoners' resolute defence before January signing Leandro Trossard eventually broke the deadlock after 66 minutes of action at the Emirates Stadium. However, the lead didn't last long, with Brentford frontman Ivan Toney heading home an equaliser for the away side just eight minutes later.
But Toney's goal should actually not have counted considering Christian Norgaard, who assisted Toney, was in an offside position in the build-up. As per The Daily Mail, VAR Lee Mason forgot to draw on the relevant lines when reviewing the goal, a huge blunder that has cost the Gunners dearly in the Premier League title race.
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PGMOL representative Chris Foy, who also used to referee in the English top-flight said: "VAR was looking to see if there was an offside and whether Ethan Pinnock had blocked off Gabriel in the build-up. He looked at the possible foul and decided there hadn’t been one and therefore referee Peter Bankes hadn’t made a clear and obvious error.
"However, in the build-up to the goal, Christian Norgaard — whose cross it is that Toney heads in — is in an offside position. However, the truth is that VAR didn’t fully investigate with the lines.
The lines, simply, didn’t go down. And that counts as human error. Had the lines gone down the goal would have been disallowed for offside."
VAR's error leaves Arsenal six points clear at the top of the league standings, although second-placed Manchester City are in action on Sunday, taking on Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium. Pep Guardiola's side will then travel down to north London to take on the Gunners at the Emirates on Wednesday night - a huge match in the race to for the title.
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