Thiago Silva was unfortunate not to win a penalty at Stamford Bridge on Friday night…
Chelsea defender Thiago Silva was unfortunate not to win a penalty for his side on Friday night when he appeared to be pulled down inside the box only for referee Robert Jones to miss the incident – while VAR failed to intervene as well.
What’s the latest on VAR and Chelsea?
It obviously hasn’t been the best week for VAR and Chelsea after former referee Mike Dean admitted in the week to not sending off Tottenham Hotspur defender Cristian Romero for a violent yank on Marc Cucurella’s hair – all simply because he didn’t want to put his friend and fellow official Anthony Taylor in an awkward position.
He said: “I said to Anthony afterwards: ‘I just didn’t want to send you to the screen after what has gone on in the game’. I didn’t want to send him up because he is a mate as well as a referee and I think I didn’t want to send him up because I didn’t want any more grief than he already had.”
Well, at least the officials couldn’t prevent the Blues from picking up their first win of the 2023/24 Premier League season on Friday as Mauricio Pochettino and co claimed a 3-0 home win against Luton Town.
Indeed, two goals from a scintillating Raheem Sterling established a comfortable lead against their recently promoted opposition, before Nicolas Jackson put the cherry on top with his first competitive goal for Chelsea.
However, the game did not pass without an incident for the PGMOL to mull over this weekend as Luton defender Tom Lockyer clearly grabbed the shirt of Silva inside the box but avoided punishment despite hauling the Brazilian to the ground.
In images shared on social media by the Sky Sports Premier League Twitter account, you can see the incident in question below.
What did PGMOL say about Mike Dean?
On this occasion in the Chelsea win over Luton, referee Jones appeared to miss the incident altogether but seeing as the shirt pull was so blatant – as proven by the images above – it’s a surprise that he wasn’t called by VAR to check the indent. Had he reviewed the footage, he surely would have pointed to the spot.
In the end, this one dubious decision wasn’t enough to sway the game in Luton’s favour as the Blues proved too much to handle for Rob Edwards and his side. But on another day, such a questionable decision certainly could have proven to be very costly for the home team.
No doubt, Pochettino will be open for some more favourable calls from the officials as the season goes on.
What’s more, after Dean’s quotes on his experience on VAR, it’s no longer a given that the officials will always follow the correct protocol to arrive at their decisions.
Although, responding to the claims with a statement, a PGMOL spokesperson said (via The Express): “VARs undergo extensive training with the focus centred entirely around effectively working with the on-field team of officials to rectify clear and obvious errors.
“When VARs identify a clear and obvious error by the on-field team and match officials, they should intervene and recommend a review by the referee. We strongly refute any suggestions that VARs do not intervene, for whatever reason, when they have identified a clear and obvious error.”
