With all the furore about the numerous VAR issues with the officiating in the Premier League, yesterday had even more incredibly inconsistent applications of the laws of the games by the VAR officials. Arsenal discovered the very worst end of the VAR inconsistencies when the VAR officials disallowed the potential winner as Sokratis scored what was a perfectly legitimate goal and put Arsenal in the driver’s seat leading 3-2 going into the final minutes of the game vs Crystal Palace at the Emirates.

We want to hear what you think by voting in the poll below as the debate around the use of VAR continues to generate widespread consternation from many of the Premier League teams and fans:

As reported on Sky Sports News there have been 26 decisions over-turned by VAR and 7 alone this past weekend. There have been over 600 VAR incidents checked so far in the 100 matches at this stage of the Premier League.

Yesterday Arsenal’s what should have been winning goal was called back for a supposed foul by Chambers on Milivojevic was detected on the replays of the build up to the Sokratis winner. The decision was totally wrong when either Chambers was being fouled by Cahill and/or Milivojevic or the players were all simply challenging for the ball and there was no foul play. Either way the goal should have stood or Arsenal should have received a penalty for the foul on Chambers.

Yesterday also saw the officiating of penalties in particular coming to the fore-front. In the Manchester United game vs Norwich City at Carrow Road yesterday, on both penalties taken for Man United by Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial the Norwich goalkeeper Tim Krul was clearly way off his line at the point of the penalty being taken meaning both penalties should have been retaken. The official word from VAR however was that the on field officials made both decisions. This is ridiculous as all penalties are reviewed by VAR yet on both occasions yesterday they did not make the obvious decisions for both kicks to be retaken.

The whole saga around Granit Xhaka and the Arsenal Captaincy will be stealing the headlines for the days to come as the incident may mean more than a yellow card for Xhaka. The issue will perhaps (at least for some fans) reduce the outrage around the VAR officials blown call which denied the Gunners the winner yesterday proving it is clear VAR as it stands is not fit for purpose.

VAR also gave Crystal Palace a penalty after Wilfred Zaha was initially yellow carded for diving with Callum Chambers not giving away a penalty but VAR ruled that it was “a clear and obvious mistake” and that Chambers had fouled Zaha and Milivojevic slotted the spot-kick home so the VAR blunder on the Sokratis winner cut even deeper.

VAR officials are getting involved when there is not “a clear and obvious mistake” by the on field officials and conversely VAR officials are not getting involved when there has been “a clear and obvious mistake”. Officials really are only consistent when it comes to their inconsistency with the application of the VAR technology.

The Premier League need to get it sorted and fast so that fans in the stadium or watching on TV are not kept in the dark for 2-3 minutes at a time while they wait for the VAR officials to make a decision. The fans should be able to listen to the VAR officials as it is in Rugby and Cricket where the conversation between the on field referee and the video official is broadcast for the fans and TV audience to hear it.