Video Assistant Referee causes controversy every week in the Premier League, but how are decisions made, and are they correct?

After each round of matches we take a look at the major incidents, to examine and explain the process both in terms of VAR protocol and the Laws of the Game.

In the midweek VAR Review: Should Mohamed Salah have been given a penalty vs. Newcastle? How does Patrick Dorgu‘s red card for Manchester United differ from other VAR decisions? And how Aston Villa found out that offside continues to be inconsistent.

Liverpool 2-0 Newcastle

Possible penalty: Challenge by Hall on Salah

What happened: The game was only three minutes old when Mohamed Salah looked to burst past Lewis Hall down the right wing. The Newcastle United defender tumbled to the ground and, in the process, as Salah entered the area he was brought down. Referee Stuart Attwell gave a free kick to Newcastle, and the move was checked by the VAR, Matt Donohue.

VAR decision: No penalty.

VAR review: The referee gave a defensive free kick before the possible penalty, so was this reviewable by the VAR? Or did play stop at the point Salah was ruled to have fouled Hall?

The VAR is effectively in play until the referee blows the whistle to stop play. So if it was blown before the potential penalty, the VAR has no role as play was already dead. But the whistle didn’t go until Salah went to ground, the VAR can assess the passage of play as a whole.

The weight of the original decision to give a foul against Salah was the determining factor. As Attwell had given a free kick, deeming that Salah pushed Hall, that has to be clearly and obviously wrong itself before any assessment for a spot kick.

Verdict: It was a soft decision to penalise the Egypt international, and probably not a foul, but it wasn’t not close to the threshold which would have seen the VAR fully consider a penalty.

There would have been a strong case for a spot kick, too, as Hall appeared to place his right arm across Salah, causing him to go down.

Man United 3-2 Ipswich

Possible red card: Serious foul play by Dorgu

What happened: The game was in the 40th minute when Patrick Dorgu challenged Omari Hutchinson by the touchline, getting contact on the ball and putting it out of play. Referee Darren England gave a throw-in, but the Ipswich Town player was down holding his shin. The tackle was checked by the VAR, Craig Pawson, for serious foul play. (watch here)

VAR decision: Red card.

VAR review: It’s a textbook example of when point of contact and level of force come together for a serious foul play red card.

There are lots of incidents where an opponent is caught above the ankle, even on the shin, but if the player is stepping into the challenge, and makes limited or glancing contact, it will be seen as reckless rather than dangerous.

One such example was Moises Caicedo’s challenge on Pape Matar Sarr in December: high contact but little to no force applied.

Dorgu’s only intention was to play the ball and not the man, but Hutchinson’s leg almost shuddered with the challenge — an unmistakable indicator of excessive force that could endanger the safety of an opponent. The Ipswich Town player was lucky not to sustain an injury and to be able to continue after treatment.

Verdict: Perhaps we can cut England a little bit of slack for this incident, as he wasn’t close to it and had Alejandro Garnacho in his line of vision. He saw that Dorgu got his foot to the ball, but not the nature of the challenge. Maybe he could have used some help from the fourth official, Sam Barrott, who was much closer.

The real surprise is how long it took — three minutes and 15 seconds from the foul to the referee showing the red card for what was undoubtedly a correct intervention.

England also needed over a minute at the monitor before accepting the upgrade. He wasn’t helped by the VAR’s first replay, shown at full speed as it should be, being from an unclear angle.

Crystal Palace 4-1 Aston Villa

Possible offside: Richards on Sarr goal

What happened: Crystal Palace took the lead in the 29th minute when Ismaïla Sarr scored from close range after the ball had been headed across goal by Chris Richards. The goal was cleared by the VAR, Jarred Gillett, but was there a case for offside?

VAR decision: Goal stands.

VAR review: Perception is so important when it comes to VAR. Earlier this month, the VAR took over four minutes to try to calculate an offside decision in a game at Crystal Palace, though admittedly that was more challenging to identify the positions of the relevant players.

This offside check still took one minute and 41 seconds from the goal being scored to being cleared, but because the lines were not displayed the impression was that the VAR only gave it a cursory glance.

The process of the VAR placing the offside lines is done in the background before the final image is sent to the broadcaster. In this case that last stage didn’t happen, even though it would have showed Lucas Digne in the left-back area was playing Richards onside.

While that might be clear to the VAR with his technology, it looked very close when only a “naked eye” picture was used to illustrate it. Being a little bit quicker isn’t always satisfactory to the aggrieved.

It wasn’t helped when little more than 10 minutes later, Morgan Rogers had a goal disallowed (watch here) for a marginal offside against Ollie Watkins in the build up. There was a small gap between the lines to attacker and defender, meaning Watkins’ knee was just in an offside position and beyond the tolerance level within the technology.

But if Aston Villa have a goal ruled out by a small margin, then they should expect to see the evidence of a goal they have conceded to a small margin.

The VAR will argue that he was supporting the on-field decision for Richards, so the proof wasn’t mandatory. With the Watkins goal, he was changing the on-field decision so had to produce the evidence.

We saw it with Fulham‘s opening goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers on Tuesday too, when Ryan Sessegnon scored (watch here) in the first minute but there was a tight offside. The VAR, Paul Tierney, found it wasn’t a close decision when placing the lines so didn’t send the image to broadcast, yet it looked very close.

Verdict: Fans always ask for consistency, and that should include how such tight offside checks are carried out.

Semi-automated offside debuts in the FA Cup this weekend, and that removes “line drawing” from the role of the VAR. The technology will produce a visualisation of all offside decisions, so there should be no reason for these unclear images when the graphic hasn’t been pushed through to the broadcaster.

Possible penalty: Challenge by Muñoz on Ramsey

What happened: Jacob Ramsey moved into the area in the 64th minute and as he was about to shoot went tumbling to the ground from a challenge by Daniel Muñoz, who put the ball behind for a corner. Ramsey looked around at referee Sam Barrott hoping for a penalty, but he said no and it was looked at by the VAR.

VAR decision: No penalty.

VAR review: When is a player moving behind an attacker a foul challenge? To many, the penalty given to Liverpool at AFC Bournemouth when Lewis Cook clipped Cody Gakpo was no different — though it was given as a penalty on the field. All decisions have their own merits, and the argument in the case of Cook would be that he was running across the back of the opponent and caused the trip.

We have seen similar situations to Ramsey across the season, however.

In October, Everton wanted a penalty against Newcastle when Dominic Calvert-Lewin went down after clipping the leg of Dan Burn as he has pulled his foot back to shoot. Howard Webb, the Premier League’s chief refereeing officer, supported no VAR intervention and said he would have expected a spot kick to be cancelled if given on the field.

Two weeks later that happened, coincidentally in another Everton game, when Ipswich Town had a penalty reversed. The VAR, Graham Scott, told referee Michael Oliver that the penalty should be cancelled as Ipswich’s Jack Clarke had caught Dwight McNeil with his back lift, and that caused him to go down.

Verdict: The Gakpo penalty will understandably raise questions of consistency in general, but VAR penalties have not been awarded for this kind of contact.

Tottenham 0-1 Man City

Possible goal: No handball by Haaland

What happened: Erling Haaland thought he had doubled Man City’s lead at Tottenham Hotspur with a second goal in the fourth minute of added time, but it was ruled out on the field by referee Jarred Gillett for handball. The VAR, Graham Scott, looked for proof that the decision was wrong.

VAR decision: No goal.

VAR review: This is the two-tier handball law in full effect.

If the ball touches an attacker’s arm, even accidentally, then he cannot immediately score a goal.

Yet if the ball accidently comes off a defender’s arm in the same passage of play — it may have done so for Archie Gray, and it definitely did for Kevin Danso — that isn’t punishable by a penalty.

Verdict: Haaland is extremely unfortunate, because if the goal had been awarded by Gillett it wouldn’t have been ruled out. There just wasn’t the definitive evidence to determine if the ball came off his bicep on one of two possible occasions, or it it was his chest and/or that of Gray.

Nottingham Forest 0-0 Arsenal

Possible penalty: Handball by Wood

What happened: Arsenal won a corner in 79th minute which was swung to the back post, with Mikel Merino attempting to get a header on goal which deflected wide off Chris Wood. Arsenal players appealed for handball, but referee Andy Madley gave a corner. It was checked by the VAR, Michael Salisbury.

VAR decision: No penalty.

VAR review: While the ball did hit Wood’s arm after it was headed toward goal by Merino, the Nottingham Forest player didn’t have his arm extended away from his body, and it was in an expected position for his movement.

Verdict: There have only been five penalties awarded for handball through VAR in the Premier League this season, and all have involved the arm being fully out or above shoulder level.

The Premier League has worked hard with clubs to make sure the handball law is less intrusive than in other leagues, and you couldn’t rule out this being given as a spot kick in one of Europe’s other top competitions.

Some factual parts of this article include information provided by the Premier League and PGMOL.