Bruno Guimaraes: PGMOL chief Howard Webb has delivered his verdict on Newcastle United’s 1-0 win over Arsenal after fresh VAR footage emerges.
According to PGMOL chief Howard Webb, Bruno Guimaraes should have been sent off during Newcastle United’s 1-0 win against Arsenal earlier this month.
The Newcastle midfielder was unpunished after his forearm collided with the back of Jorginho’s head during the heated match at St James’ Park.
The incident occurred shortly after Arsenal’s Kai Havertz was shown a yellow card for a strong challenge on Sean Longstaff.
And, on Sky Sports’ Match Officials Mic’d Up, Webb confirmed that both players should have been disqualified. “Quite a busy game, wasn’t it?” asked Webb. A number of scenarios where, in the cold light of day, we would expect red cards in both of those circumstances coming ahead.”
Guimaraes had his fifth Premier League booking of the season and was awarded a yellow card, which resulted in his suspension for the trip to Bournemouth. A red card for violent behavior would have meant that the Brazilian would have missed the upcoming matches against Chelsea and Manchester United after the international break.
Webb also went into greater detail on Newcastle’s winning goal, which was subjected to three different VAR checks after being awarded by referee Stuart Attwell.
Given the three episodes of controversy before the ball struck the net, Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta called the decision to award the goal a shame.
The published VAR audio recording revealed that there was no solid proof that the ball had gone out of play before Joe Willock crossed it, nor that Joelinton fouled Gabriel or handled the ball before it reached Anthony Gordon, who was not deemed offside.
After four minutes of examination, the on-field decision was upheld since no clear and evident error had been committed.
Webb stated of the audio tape, “An unusual situation because there were three aspects for the VAR to check whether the on-field goal decision should be overturned.”
“We see the ball getting very close to the goal line (touchline), don’t forget we have an assistant referee who is right in line, the ball doesn’t have much speed as it goes to the line, so he’s looking right down the line better than any of our cameras.”
“And we know the ball is curved, so it could be overhanging the line, and we need proof that it’s out, which we don’t have.” The ball then comes across and Joelinton challenges Gabriel, which might be a foul. The VAR decides that the evidence from the camera isn’t clear enough to warrant an intervention and recommends a review for a clear error.
“I think the talk that we’ve seen after in this situation, the opinions that it splits across a lot of analysis since the situation suggests that was a correct non-intervention because of the subjectivity. 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 and therefore the VAR went through that diligently and identified no clear evidence to intervene to overturn the goal. So the process actually was correct.”
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