VAR narrowly avoids repeat of Liverpool error during Chelsea’s win over Burnley

It seems referees and PGMOL have learned something from their glaring VAR error during Liverpool’s loss against Tottenham as Raheem Sterling’s goal was given onside over the weekend - but they were certainly lucky in the outcome.

Liverpool were on the wrong side of one of the worst decisions we’ve seen since the introduction of VAR during their 2-1 defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium and the whole incident has shined a light on the quality of refeering in this country.

Sterling was played in by Conor Gallagher before finishing to give Chelsea a 3-1 lead at the time, but there was then an issue, the on-field referee Stuart Atwell kicking off before the check was fully complete, ESPN reports.

Fortunately, after a full check which did take some time, Sterling’s goal was confirmed to be legitimate, with the forward being about as onside as Diaz was for his goal that was ruled out.

Due to the current ruling, no matter what the outcome of the VAR check, the goal would have had to stand following the resumption of play.

There was also an incident similar to the dismissal of Curtis Jones against Tottenham during Arsenal’s victory over Manchester City on Sunday; Mateo Kovacic escaped a straight red card for a bad tackle on Martin Ødegaard and his tackle was late and directly made strong contract with the captain’s ankle.

Jones was dismissed when his foot made contact with the ball before it then slipped onto Yves Bissouma’s ankle - and there was a clear difference between the two incidents and yet, only the Liverpool man saw red.

Against Brighton, Jurgen Klopp was pulling his hair out during the post-match interviews trying to figure out how Pascal Gross managed to avoid a red card for bringing Dominik Szoboszlai down in the first half.