How ‘human error’ caused VAR to allow Brentford’s equalizer stand against Arsenal

Brentford’s equaliser in Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Arsenal was allowed to stand as the result of VAR ‘human error’.

The Bees were good value for their point at the Emirates Stadium but were fortunate that Ivan Toney’s late leveller stood.

After Leandro Trossard came off the bench to score his first Arsenal goal, the Gunners were pegged back in the 74th minute.

Mathias Jensen’s deep free-kick was volleyed back through the box by Toney, causing a scramble as Arsenal tried to clear their lines. Ethan Pinnock flicked the ball on for Christian Norgaard to chase, and he squared it for Toney to nod in from close range.

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VAR checked the goal for offside against Pinnock and he was cleared of wrongdoing, but Norgaard was standing beyond the last defender before he received the ball and the goal should have been chalked off.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta revealed his fury at full-time as he had watched the goal back and spotted this missed call, and he was backed up by PGMOL representative Chris Foy.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Foy explained: “Ivan Toney puts the ball in the net and VAR Lee Mason obviously runs through the checks.

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“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.”

A similar incident occurred elsewhere in the Premier League on Saturday, as Brighton’s Pervis Estupinan was wrongfully denied a goal against Crystal Palace for offside as lines were drawn to the wrong player.