PGMOL boss Howard Webb has admitted referee Michael Oliver should be ‘really disappointed’ with his failure to award Tottenham a late penalty against Arsenal. However, The video review system saved Oliver’s blushes in the final five minutes of Sunday’s match.
The incident
The score was sitting at 3-1 entering the final stages. Spurs were chasing another goal to cut Arsenal’s advantage late in the game. That’s when Declan Rice took out Ben Davies with an attempted clearance after the latter arrived first at the ball.
The referee Michael Oliver didn’t award Tottenham a penalty instantly, but it was subsequently checked by VAR. VAR officials required little time to send Oliver to the screen and he eventually gave the penalty.
Referees’ chief Webb gave his verdict of the incident on the latest episode of Match Officials Mic’d Up.
Webb says Michael Oliver ‘will be really disappointed’
Webb explained: “I know Michael [Oliver] will be really disappointed.
“He had a really good game. He’s one of our top referees, he’s one of the top referees in the world. He’s been selected for the Euros in Germany this summer, together with seven other English officials, and he had a really, really good game in the way he managed it.
“But I know you’ll be disappointed he misread that in the moment and we all can misread things in the moment. I did that many times myself. But thankfully we’ve got VAR that can look at these situations very quickly. You’ll hear Jarred Gillett at the VAR check it, stop the game in a neutral zone so nothing else can happen.
“For example, we don’t want a goal scored at the other end and then having to take that away as well. Stop the game as soon as possible. Michael went to the screen, looked at it, quickly saw the error and gave a penalty. And as you say, without VAR this would have stayed as a non-awarded penalty. It would have been hugely controversial. So a really good use of the VAR facility here.”
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