Premier League now hit back at Arsenal and Liverpool statements with VAR response

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The Premier League have mounted a defence of VAR following complaints from clubs including Arsenal and Liverpool.

As a club, Arsenal have certainly taken issue with the standard of Premier League officiating at times this season.

Following the north London club’s defeat against Newcastle United earlier this season, Mikel Arteta did not hold back in expressing his fury over the fact that the Magpies’ winning goal was allowed to stand. Arteta railed against the officials and VAR as he bemoaned the fact that the goal was not chalked off. 

Since then, Arsenal have made another complaint to PGMOL, this time concerning the perceived lack of protection that Bukayo Saka receives from Premier League referees.

Arsenal are not the only top flight outfit to have expressed this kind of discontent.

Earlier this season, Liverpool made a statement that was critical of the VAR process after the technology was applied incorrectly during their clash with Tottenham Hotspur. 

It is clear that standards of officiating in the Premier League must be improved, and that the VAR process must be reassessed in order to make it as efficient and safe from human error as possible.

Were Arsenal right to push back against VAR?

As far as the Premier League are concerned, though, VAR has already been successful in ensuring that less incorrect decisions are made in any given match.

As reported by Sky Sports, the Premier League claim that 96% of decisions made in any given match are correct. Prior to the introduction of VAR, this success rate figure stood at 82%. The Premier League will clearly hope that this data serves as an adequate rebuttal to the challenges against VAR that have been put forward by Arsenal and Liverpool this season. 

However, VAR has been a controversial topic since it was first brought into the English club game at the start of the 2019/20 season. This is the fifth season that VAR has been implemented in the Premier League, and it remains an unsatisfactory process for many clubs and fans.

VAR may well have led to an increase in correct decisions being made on average. However, all that means is that when there is an egregious error, the club on the receiving end of it feels even more hard done by.

It also has to be asked if this increase in correct calls is even a worthwhile reward for the negative impact that VAR checks have on the flow on matches, which also diminish the experience for fans in the stadiums themselves.