We saw good use of VAR on Harry Kane’s first goal for Tottenham against Everton last night. There was a check to see if it was onside and I think it’s a positive to see goals eventually being given after VAR checks.
We also saw it with Riyad Mahrez’s second goal against Manchester United, with VAR coming into play on both those occasions and it worked very well. Had we not had VAR those goals would’ve been ruled out.
We also saw a Nottingham Forest goal disallowed for offside last night, and it looked like it was the wrong decision. I think the integrity of the FA Cup has to be brought into question, because there’s VAR in Premier League grounds, but not in Championship grounds. So for the good of the competition I think we need to decide if we use VAR in all games or not at all. Luckily Forest ran out 2-1 winners anyway so it didn’t change the result on this occasion.
The first Brentford penalty against Norwich, I would personally expect a referee of Anthony Taylor’s quality to be seeing that straight away, but that’s what VAR is there for.
Arsenal might also feel they could’ve had a penalty against Watford for a challenge on Alexandre Lacazette, but it wasn’t a clear and obvious error. If the referee had given that, it would have stayed given, VAR wouldn’t have got involved.
Overall I think there’s a lot of positives from VAR to take from this weekend’s action.