After Marcus Rashford set up Anthony Martial to score the second goal for Manchester United in their 2-0 win over Everton on Saturday, VAR may have made a serious error by failing to investigate if Marcus Rashford might have been offside.
The Red Devils hosted a relegation-threatened Everton on Saturday afternoon in the Premier League at Old Trafford. In the end, strikes from Scott McTominay and Anthony Martial helped Erik ten Hag and company secure a rather straightforward 2-0 victory.
With the game's second goal, it appears as though United may have been a little lucky. Rashford seemed to have been offside when Lisandro Martinez made the initial ball through, as this image from Twitter reveals.
The Man United striker appears to be past the final Everton defender, as seen in an image trending on twitter. Marcus Rashford makes a move in the direction of the ball before Seamus Coleman misses controlling it, even if he doesn't touch it first.
From this point on, the Englishman takes up the ball and passes it to Martial, who easily capitalizes on the opportunity to secure the win.
The FA Rules state that a player shall be warned if they are in an offside position when they challenge an opponent for the ball or obviously try to play a ball that is close to them and this action negatively affects the opponent; Alternatively, you can get an edge by playing the ball or interfering with an opponent after it has bounced or been deflected off an opponent, or you can take a clear action that plainly affects the opponent's ability to play the ball.
In light of this, it is possible to claim that Rashford should have been called for offside because his presence undoubtedly affected Coleman as the Everton player sprinted to try to clear the ball. Even though there may have been an offside, no penalty was handed, and it's not certain if VAR ever looked at the incident because TV replays don't always reveal what the referees are looking at behind the scenes.
Everton might have been able to claw their way back into the game if the goal had been disallowed because they would have just been behind one with about 20 minutes remaining. But ultimately, Man United's victory is crucial because it keeps them tied with Newcastle for third place in terms of points, while the Toffees are only one goal above the bottom three on goal differential.
Man United's 2-0 win against Everton wasn't the only game where VAR has made erroneous decisions which impacted the game this season, apart from Arsenal's 1-1 draw with Brentford in January, Brighton Albion's 2-1 loss to Tottenham Hotspur at Ammex Stadium on Saturday afternoon is the latest VAR howler.
Brighton Albion saw two of their goals ruled out due to ball coming in contact with a player's hand in the build up to the goal before being denied of a clear penalty. After Brighton was denied a penalty during their loss to Tottenham, the Premier League's refereeing organization acknowledged that they made a critical error.
PGMOL chairman Howard Webb has accepted that Kaoru Mitoma's foul on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in the second half should have resulted in a penalty kick for Brighton. At 1-1, Mitoma attempted to handle the ball in the box when Hojbjerg tripped him over, but referee Stuart Attwell didn't call a foul.
At Stockley Park, VAR Michael Salisbury reviewed the video, but Roberto De Zerbi's team did not receive a penalty. During their teams' match in north London, Stellini and De Zerbi were both dismissed after tussling on the sidelines. Next weekend's match between Manchester United and the Emirates FA Cup semifinal at Wembley Stadium will be without Roberto De Zerbi.
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