VAR WATCH: Mirror Football takes a look at some key decisions from gameweek three as the Premier League’s Video Assistant Referee continues to spark controversy
We are now three weeks into the 2025/26 Premier League season and VAR controversies are showing no signs of slowing down. Inconsistency in refereeing has been the biggest cause of fan frustration so far this season.
Among the plethora of contentious decisions have been Eberechi Eze’s free-kick goal being ruled out on matchday one and James Tarkowski’s bizarre handball verdict. But despite repeated calls by fans and pundits to simplify refereeing and for less VAR involvement, this weekend produced arguably the biggest outrage yet.
As VAR and the PMGOL’s refereeing standards continue to be scrutinised, Mirror Football takes a look at the major incidents from this weekend’s action, including the key decisions both Chelsea and Manchester United benefitted from.
READ MORE: Alan Shearer sensationally tears into Howard Webb after being personally embarrassed by VARREAD MORE: Fulham star risks wrath of Premier League chiefs with furious rant on VAR controversy
Howard Webb admits error
Saturday’s early Premier League kick-off saw Fulham open the scoring in the 22nd minute at Stamford Bridge, with Josh King netting against west London rivals Chelsea. But the goal was chalked off due to an apparent foul on Trevoh Chalobah by Rodrigo Muniz, to the fury of the visitors.
Referee Robert Jones declared to the entire stadium that Rodrigo Muniz had made a „careless challenge“ and stepped on Trevoh Chalobah’s foot during the build-up, a call many viewers considered extremely harsh. To add insult to injury for Fulham, the Blues‘ opener in their 2-0 win came nine minutes into eight minutes of added time at the end of the first half, leaving fans furious as the outcome of the game was very much decided by an unnecessary call.
Referees chief Howard Webb contacted Fulham after the game and acknowledged the decision was incorrect. He admitted the call to disallow the goal did not reach the high bar of a VAR intervention as it was not a clear and obvious error by the referee, and should have gone down as a ‚referees‘ call‘ instead.
Referees‘ body PGMOL consequently replaced VAR culprit Michael Salisbury with John Brooks for Liverpool vs Arsenal on. However, that did little to quell the anger towards VAR and how it’s implemented.
Fulham defender Antonee Robinson post-match called out the Premier League’s VAR, calling the level of officiating in the Premier League „shocking.“
Fulham dealt another blow by VAR
In the 52nd minute of the same game, the referee overturned his original decision of no penalty to Chelsea after the ball was blocked by Ryan Sessegnon in the box. Sessegnon’s arm was raised away from his body and VAR’s decision to overturn Jones’ original call should have been an easy one.
But they took three-and-a-half minutes to reach a straight-forward decision, only feeding the narrative of uncertainty and unease surrounding VAR intervention. The correct outcome simply took too long to reach.
Man Utd’s penalty decisions
Referee Sam Barrott awarded a penalty to Manchester United in the 16th minute of their clash with Burnley, when Kyle Walker was judged to have brought down Mason Mount. It was checked by the VAR, Stuart Attwell, and the penalty was cancelled due to minimal contact.
Lyle Foster of Burnley thought he had equalised in the 59th minute, but the offside flag went up. Semi-automated offside determined that most of Foster’s upper arm was offside – a part of the body which is legal to play the ball with.
In the second minute of stoppage time, at the end of the game, Amad went to ground inside the box, with Barrott ignoring United’s appeals for a shirt pull.
However, VAR deemed that there was enough pulling on the United winger’s shirt to warrant a penalty, which Bruno Fernandes scored in the 97th minute to earn his side a crucial win. VAR on this occasion successfully did what it was brought into the game to do.
PGMOL continue crackdown
Brentford were awarded a penalty against Sunderland around the hour mark when Nathan Collins went to ground at the back post during a corner, with referee Anthony Taylor pointing to the spot. Following the correct call by VAR to stick with Taylor’s decision, after Reinildo Mandava clearly held Collins, Kevin Schade’s effort was saved by Robin Roefs.
Sunderland were then awarded their own penalty in the 82nd minute after Rico Henry pulled down Habib Diarra. VAR Darren England again stuck with Taylor’s decision to award a spot-kick, which although was softer than the first, was not enough of a clear and obvious error to be overturned.
The two decisions demonstrated that PGMOL are still enforcing their clamp down on unfair grappling inside the box, which was a point raised ahead of the new season.
Webb said about the rule’s implementation: „What we’ve said to the officials is, if you get one of those extreme situations where one player is clearly dragging another one to the floor in an extreme non-footballing action, even if it’s off the ball, we expect either the referee to see it or, if it’s a clear one, then the VAR will will intervene and recommend the referee looks at it at the screen because it fits the criteria that we’ve laid out.“
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