Chelsea: Opposite directions of Giroud and Kepa, and other lessons learned

2. VAR’s laughable incompetence on show once again

Another day of Premier League football and along with it, a fresh wave of VAR controversies with Chelsea once again finding themselves on the short end of the stick.

The VAR decision in question this time was a horror challenge by Giovanni Lo Celso on Cesar Azpilicueta. The Argentine’s boot landed fully on the Chelsea captain’s lower leg, a “challenged” that could have broken Azpilicueta’s leg on another day. Maybe there was no malicious intent in the challenge but, under the new refereeing laws of the game, intent becomes irrelevant when considering the potential damage that could have been done to the Spaniard.

Taking into account Stockley Park’s initial explanation behind its decision to not send off Lo Celso – “VAR didn’t feel that there was anywhere else for him to put his foot” – it becomes questionable if English referees are even educated in the rules of the game. Despite Michael Oliver being no more than a few feet away from the monitor itself, he was once again not advised to use it to reach a possible judgement of his own.

Then, just when you thought that VAR cannot get any more laughable than it already is, the officials in charge of it simply went about and shot themselves in their own foot by admitting that they “got the decision wrong,” 30 minutes later.

Considering the purpose of VAR is to make the correct decision with the benefit of unlimited secondary viewings, what then is the point of its existence when the wrong decision was still made even after seven consecutive reviews of the footage but 30 more minutes did the trick?

At the end of the day, the challenge was as dangerous as it was careless. VAR’s response in the words of Lampard himself, was just “not good enough.”

This incident marks the second time in a week when necessary intervention by VAR to punish dangerous play was not duly carried out for one reason or another. It’s not even surprising any more.