VAR was sold to us as footballing perfection. A complete elimination of human error from the officiating process. A few years on, we now see that we were sold a false dream. But beyond the goals, fouls and other injustices, we have been denied something greater. Some of the most iconic moments of Premier League madness would never have happened with VAR in use. Read on for just some of the football brilliance VAR would have cruelly ripped from our collective bosom.
Beach Ball
Sunderland v Liverpool was just another dull Premier League game until one Liverpool fans punched a beach ball from the stand into the penalty box. Sunderland went on the attack and the ball dropped for Darren Bent who fizzed a shot towards goal. The football hit the beachball sending Pepe Reina into a spin and the ball into a net.
This goal would have been reviewed by VAR and disallowed. Whereas now we get to look back at one of the funniest Premier League moments in history. What a moment this was.
Luis Suarez Bite
Luis Suarez was one of the Premier League’s top strikers but he was also a very naughty boy who could not resist a cheeky nibble. Branislav Ivanovic was his first victim all those years ago when he unleashed those rodent like canines into his delicious flesh.
Ivanovic protested and showed the referee who was having none of it whilst Suarez seemed to claim Ivanovic’s arm had fallen into his teeth. An interesting tactic from the Uruguayan amazingly paid off as he was not sent off at the time, and then went on to controversially bag a stoppage time equaliser.
Absolute scenes that would not have been possible with VAR. We don’t want to see this sort of shithousery wiped out from the game.
Ruud Van Nistelrooy v Martin Keown
One of the fiercest games of football anywhere in the world in the early 2000’s was between Arsenal and Manchester United. The two top clubs in England at the time had teams stacked with fierce characters and of course there was the small matter of Patrick Vieira v Roy Keane.
Keown gave away a penalty, Ruud stepped up and smashed the ball against the crossbar leading to absolute chaos. Martin Keown jumped up and down in the Dutchman’s face whilst the other Arsenal players shoved him around. An outstanding Premier League moment which led to no yellow or red cards being shown. No doubt VAR would have lead to a pause in play and ten-minute wait for the penalty and then a red card for Keown.
Mkhitaryan Scorpion Kick
What a stunning goal this was. A real joy to behold. Man Utd were cruising against a woeful Sunderland team when Henrikh Mkhitaryan pulled off one of the most spectacular goals we had seen in the Premier League, until Olivier Giroud bettered it a few weeks later.
This goal was still something to enjoy though and even though it was offside I really didn’t care. A wonderful piece of skill and technique. With VAR in place this would have just been another disallowed goal but instead we got to enjoy this beauty!
Oxlade Chamberlain and Kieran Gibbs Confusion
Yes. One of the funniest moments from the Premier League came as Chelsea ran riot against Arsenal and the Gunners crumbled to pieces. Arsene Wenger was coming under fire from the Arsenal fans on his 1000th game in charge but Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea showed no mercy on the day.
The talking point of the game occured with the Blues 2-0 up early on, Eden Hazard fired a shot towards goal which was saved on the line by Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and for some reason Andre Marriner showed Kieran Gibbs a red card. This is despite Ox telling the referee it was him on multiple occasions.
We would never have got this gem of a moment VAR was in place back in 2014 and one of the great talking points would have been instantly dismissed.
