VAR controversy rears its ugly head again in Manchester City-Spurs

In a match that Manchester City thoroughly dominated and did more than enough to take all three points, VAR stole the show once again as Tottenham nicked a point at the Etihad.

VAR’s introduction into the Premier League has already been far from a seamless transition through two rounds of play, with Saturday’s 2-2 draw between Manchester City and Spurs once again the focal point of replay controversy.

The match itself was one-way traffic, as City absolutely rolled Spurs with 30 shots compared to three. Moreover, Spurs’ two goals came on defensive lapses for City, with the first coming on a horrendous goalkeeping error from Ederson as Erik Lamela was able to calmly stroke the ball into the middle of the goal, while the other came in the form of an unmarked Lucas Moura on a corner. Spurs’ only other shot of the match was a wishful effort from talisman Harry Kane that came from within his own half.

Kevin de Bruyne showed absolute world-class quality for the Citizens, looking absolutely unplayable at times and delivering two pinpoint crosses for both City goals.

The central controversy of the match stems from Gabriel Jesus’ potential 90th minute winner for City, which appeared on first look as more than fair, with no opposition players looking to appeal to the referee. However, VAR intervened and determined that the ball had struck Aymeric Laporte’s arm in the buildup, which under the new handball law cannot occur in any play resulting in a goal. While the goal’s reversal is the correct decision under the current rules, the inconsistency of VAR’s usage has proven to be more than problematic in its early days in the English top flight.

In the early stages of the match, City midfielder Rodri was clearly dragged to the ground by his neck on a corner by Lamela, an incident that immediately had several City players appealing to referee Michael Oliver that at a minimum deserved a stoppage of play for discussion with VAR. Seemingly without a second thought, Oliver immediately waved play on. Upon further replay, however, it is difficult to come away from the incident and not at least consider the possibility that City should have been awarded a penalty.

Here lies the key frustration with VAR: the inconsistency in its usage. The only justification in not even considering the Rodri foul for discussion is the idea that the referee did not make a ‘clear and obvious error’, yet the incident was clearly a far more egregious violation of the laws of the game than an innocuous handball that went completely unnoticed on the pitch.

"“Rodri went down, it was a penalty,” Pep Guardiola said. “But VAR was taking a coffee in that moment.”"

Again, under the currently-constructed handball rule, the decision to rule out Jesus’ goal was correct. However, the idea that the referee would stop everything to find the smallest incident in City’s potential winner and not even consider a serious foul that would have been given if it had occurred on any other area of the pitch seems self-defeating.

The entire aim of VAR in the first place is to get decisions correct without appearing to re-adjudicate the entire match via video replay, yet across two City matches so far this season, the opposite has occurred. VAR has denied two goals that would have been given before its inception, the Jesus winner and Sterling’s fractional offside against West Ham, which would have counted because neither was scored with a horrendous violation of the rules. I take no issue with these being discounted in a post-VAR world because both are the correct ruling, but the point stands that they would have both counted a season ago. On the other hand, however, it has let slide incidents that it was introduced to correct. 

If the true aim of VAR is to get decisions correct and prevented results being altered by egregious officiating errors, it unequivocally failed at the Etihad on Saturday. There is an old adage in football that ‘incorrect decisions even themselves out’.

That saying was personified in the City-Spurs match, as City’s early penalty denial would have been evened out by a late controversial winner in a pre-replay world, but VAR double-dipped in favor of Spurs, directly contributing to an unfair result given the balance of play. VAR cannot pick and choose its spots like this; it must be consistent. VAR was introduced to create stability and consistency in officiating, yet its haphazard involvement makes potentially-reviewable incidents feel like a possession arrow in college basketball: a lottery-like decision that will have an effect on the outcome and it has caused more chaos than ever before.

Video replay exists in the Premier League to ensure correct results unaltered by clear officiating mistakes, yet it ironically missed perhaps the most clear refereeing error of the day. Its inactivity proved just as detrimental as an incorrect decision and cost City two vital points that could prove to be the difference in another tight battle with Liverpool come the end of the season.