Match Officials Mic'd Up: Webb analyses key incidents in MW8-9

PGMOL and the Premier League are opening up discussions between the referee and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) for key incidents this season. In the latest instalment of "Match Officials Mic'd Up" in 2024/25, Howard Webb, chief operating officer at PGMOL, discusses five recent incidents.

Webb and Leon Osman go through the conversations between the match officials to give fans greater knowledge of how decisions are made. The officials on the pitch do not hear all the conversations from the VAR hub in Stockley Park. 

The incidents covered are:
- Saliba's red card v Bournemouth
- Tosin's yellow card v Liverpool
- West Ham's late penalty v Man Utd
- Stones' overturned goal v Wolves
- Cash's handball v Fulham

Saliba's red card v Bournemouth

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Incident: The ball is played by Arsenal's Leandro Trossard back towards his own goal. AFC Bournemouth striker Evanilson chases it down, but is brought down by Arsenal centre-back William Saliba.

What the match officials did: Referee Robert Jones issues Saliba a yellow card, believing it not to be a denial of a goalscoring opportunity (DOGSO). VAR official Jarred Gillett reviews the incident and believes Saliba has committed DOGSO, sending Jones to the Referee Review Area (RRA). After review, Jones changes his initial decision and awards Saliba a red card.

Webb: "I think that the offence committed by William Saliba in this situation did deny Evanilson an obvious goalscoring opportunity. I think the yellow card that was issued by Rob Jones on the field was clearly and obviously wrong. 

"It's a poor pass back by Leandro Trossard that puts Evanilson in and then Saliba grabs him. So suddenly from Arsenal having possession, the referees are faced with having to make a decision very quickly. Sometimes with DOGSO you have time to prepare your mind for what's going happen. 

"Initially they believe that Ben White was closer than he actually was. And they also weren't convinced that Evanilson would control the ball.

"There's two things that VAR can do here to prove that the on-field decision was wrong. Firstly, you can see that Ben White is a long way away. He's not going to get to Evanlison from that position. And then secondly, they can see that David Raya is backing off and when the ball dies in front of Evanilson, even though it's some distance from goal, he's going to get on to that ball. He's going to have time to gain nice control just for the goalkeeper to beat.

"So, for me, a good intervention by the VAR, a clear and obvious error in not showing a red card on the field."

See: Rules for DOGSO

Tosin's yellow card v Liverpool

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Incident: In the match between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield, the ball is played over the Liverpool defence and Tosin Adarabioyo brings down the Reds' Diogo Jota.

What the match officials did: Referee John Brooks issues a free-kick to Liverpool and a yellow card to Tosin. The VAR confirms the on-field decision.

Webb: "The two situations [Saliba and Tosin] were compared. In this situation, the on-field decision was a yellow card for Tosin stopping a promising attack. The referee on the field felt this fell short of being DOGSO because the ball is arcing away to the right [touchline].

"On the other one [Saliba], it was going towards the centre [of the goal]. This one's going out towards where the assistant is, that's one aspect. Another key aspect for me is that [Chelsea defender] Levi Colwill is pretty close by. This is a situation that's high up the field. Colwill has a lot of time to get back from a close position to Jota and undoubtedly would have been able to impact the obviousness of this situation.

"And I agree with the yellow card in this situation and it was correctly check-completed by the VAR.

"I think the foul here by Tosin is more sustained. It's more clear than the one by Saliba. I think they’re both fouls just at different kind of levels. But that's not the factor that we're looking at in terms of DOGSO. As long as we say, 'OK, they're both fouls, one's more severe than the other’, then we’re talking about the consequences.

"And the consequences here are not obvious in the way they were in the one at Bournemouth."

West Ham's late penalty v Man Utd

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Incident: West Ham United forward Danny Ings goes down inside the penalty area following a challenge from Manchester United's Matthijs de Ligt.

What the match officials did: Referee David Coote does not award a penalty, allowing play to carry on. The VAR spots that De Ligt's catches Ings and tells Coote to delay the restart. The ref is sent to the RRA by the VAR and after review changes his decision and awards a penalty to West Ham.

Webb: "I thought it was a misread, Leon, by the VAR, a VAR that's normally really talented and reliable, but gets uber-focused in this situation on De Ligt’s leg. His leg coming through on to Danny Ings, not making any contact with the ball. The ball's already past De Ligt as he as he makes contact with Danny Ings.

"And the VAR sees that as a clear foul. I think he was too focused on that aspect. I don't think he should have got involved. I think this is a situation where we'd leave the on-field decision as it is, probably whichever way it's called. On balance, I don't think it's a penalty kick. I would prefer no foul being given, no penalty."

Stones' overturned  goal v Wolves

Incident: John Stones scores for Manchester City against Wolverhampton Wanderers in the fifth minute of stoppage time, but the goal is ruled out for offside on Bernardo Silva who is stood in in front of Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa's line of sight. 

What the match officials did: The assistant referee rules out the goal for offside. The VAR officials review the incident and say that Silva, although in an offside position, is not affecting the goalkeeper, nor is he attempting to play the ball. They recommend that referee Chris Kavanagh reviews the incident. After review, Kavanagh overrules his initial decision and awards a goal to City.

Webb: "It was disallowed in real-time. There was a bit of confusion initially as to whether it had be disallowed. It had. The on-field officials determined that Bernardo Silva had committed an offside offence when the ball was headed forward by John Stones. He can’t commit an offence before that because the ball comes from a corner and the law states you cannot be penalised for offside from a corner.

"But as soon as John Stones heads it forward, then his [Silva] position becomes relevant. Then we have to judge whether he has committed an offside offence. Now to do that, he has to be in an offside position - which he is - he also has to be doing other things. He either has to touch the ball - he doesn’t - he either has to be in the line or sight of the goalkeeper - he’s not - or he has to in some way challenge the goalkeeper, impact his movement, make physical contact with him. He doesn’t do any of those things as we can see.

"So when the VAR looked at that, he could see that the goal was good, the offside offence hadn’t been committed by Bernardo Silva and quite rightly intervened to have the goal awarded. If he stays in front of Jose Sa, then he [Silva] would be penalised, because he is right in front blocking the line of sight, impacting his ability to react. We saw that with a game at Wolves against West Ham last year when [Lukasz] Fabianski was impacted and that was correctly intervened upon."

Cash's handball v Fulham

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Incident: A cross from Fulham defender Kenny Tete is met by Raul Jimenez and his header is blocked by the hand of Aston Villa’s Matty Cash.

What the match officials did: Referee Darren England does not award a penalty. VAR officials intervene to ask England to review the decision. After review, England awards Fulham a spot-kick, the first and only one for handball in the Premier League this season from 110 matches.

Webb: "It’s a really interesting stat (the first handball penalty) because previous seasons we would have been higher than that. We spoke to lots of people in the game, spoke to captains, managers, fan groups and a whole range of people, and we asked a number of questions about the way we officiate. And some of the questions we got were about handball. And the feedback we got is that we give too many handballs that are not real handball offences, where players are moving really normally and can’t do much about it.

"So we took that on board and gave guidance on only penalising when the players either clearly deliberately handled the ball - they move their hand to the ball - or they play in a way that is not justifiable, where their arm is clearly away from the body in a way it doesn’t need to be.

"Like we see with Matty Cash here. I don’t know why he’s got his arm in that position. It's close, but what’s his left arm doing there right in front of Raul Jimenez? Even though it is close, it’s just obviously in an unnatural position, in our opinion, and that is a good penalty and correctly awarded."

See: Interpretation of handball in 2024/25

Glossary of terms

VAR: Video Assistant Referee; AVAR: Assistant Video Assistant Referee; RO: replay operator; APP: attacking phase of play.

UK users can watch the whole "Match Officials Mic'd Up" video on Sky Sports and TNT Sports. International users can access the full video with their local rights-holder.

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