Howard Webb has dismissed Mikel Arteta’s complaints over Newcastle’s winner against Arsenal this month and insisted VAR got all three reviews in Anthony Gordon’s goal correct.
Webb, the chief refereeing officer of Professional Game Match Officials Ltd (PGMOL), addressed the controversy in the latest edition of the series Match Officials: Mic’d Up on Tuesday when audio between the referee and VAR at St James’ Park was broadcast.
Arteta was incandescent that Gordon’s 64th-minute winner was allowed to stand following a triple VAR check for a possible offside, a possible foul and whether the ball had gone out of play in the build‑up. The Arsenal manager said he felt “sick” and “embarrassed” by the “disgraceful” decision after the game and was supported by a withering statement from his club the following day that insisted PGMOL “urgently needs to address the standard of officiating” in the Premier League.
Webb, however, claimed the VAR, Andy Madley, and his team, plus the on-field referee Stuart Attwell, were correct to award the goal that inflicted Arsenal’s first league defeat of the season.
Audio of the review into whether the ball had gone out of play before Gordon converted reveals Madley saying: “For me, I’ve got no conclusive evidence that the ball is out.” The assistant VAR adds: “Although it looks out, you’ve got the curvature of the ball [to consider].”
Webb said: “We know the ball is curved so it can be overhanging the line and we need evidence that it’s out and we don’t have that here. The ball then comes over and Joelinton challenges Gabriel. Could be a foul, might be a foul, the VAR decides that the evidence from the footage isn’t clear enough to warrant and intervene with a recommendation for a review for a clear error. And then one of those unusual situations where the ball goes between two players and trying to identify exactly when the ball leaves Joelinton is really difficult to establish because of the players being so close together.
“So again, no conclusive evidence that Gordon was offside when the ball was last touched to him. The VAR went through that diligently and identified no clear evidence to intervene to overturn the goal. The process actually was correct.”
The referees’ chief did confirm that the match officials erred at St James’ Park by not showing red cards to Arsenal’s Kai Havertz for a foul on Sean Longstaff, and to Newcastle’s Bruno Guimarães for an elbow on Jorginho.
One club left with a legitimate grievance after Webb’s analysis are Wolves, who he admitted had a penalty wrongly awarded against them in their 2-2 draw with Newcastle last month. VAR, said Webb, should have deemed the referee Anthony Taylor’s on‑field decision to award a spot‑kick against Hwang Hee-chan for a challenge on Fabian Schär a clear and obvious error.
“We feel this is a situation that reaches the threshold for a clear and obvious error even though there is contact and the ball isn’t played by Hwang,” Webb said. “VAR didn’t quite get there and, in our opinion, should have done.”
