A former Premier League referee believes it was "pathetic" that VAR did not intervene and award Crystal Palace a penalty against Liverpool.
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Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 1-0Van Dijk avoids penalty over Guehi incidentEx-ref slams decision as 'pure garbage'Follow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
According to ex-official Keith Hackett, Palace were denied a "clear and obvious" penalty for Virgil van Dijk's pull on Marc Guehi in the second half. He added that it was "pure garbage" when the VAR team argued that the "challenge was not sustained holding and had no impact on the play".
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Hackett told The Telegraph: "As Marc Guehi attempts to get to the ball at the back post of the Liverpool box, Virgil van Dijk blatantly pulls him back to stop any chance of him doing so. Indeed, the Liverpool defender used both hands to commit the foul as if trying to draw attention to the fact he was doing something illegal. Of course, referees will miss things and, therefore, Simon Hooper is not entirely to blame despite being at fault for making the initial mistake. But for the VAR to not intervene was frankly pathetic. The whole point of VAR is to correct mistakes, not ignore them for sake of convenience or some other unknown reason."
He added: "To make things worse, the Premier League then confirmed the incident had been reviewed by VAR and put out a statement, arguing “that the challenge was not sustained holding and had no impact on the play”. Pure garbage. Everyone can see it was, in fact, sustained holding and it did impact play – even if Guehi still had some work to do to reach the ball. Putting out statements like that just confuses everyone when the footage quite clearly shows the opposite. Officials need to concentrate on applying the law first and foremost. Holding is an offence in law. It really should be as simple as that."
Getty ImagesTHE BIGGER PICTURE
On such fine margins are games, and even titles, won and lost. The decision to not award Palace a penalty helped Liverpool secure the victory and maintain their place at the top of the Premier League, whereas the Eagles are in the relegation zone and are still searching for their first win of the season.
WHAT NEXT?
Palace and Liverpool will return to Premier League action following the conclusion of the international break. On their return, the Reds host Chelsea on October 20 and Palace travel to Nottingham Forest a day later.