Arsenal's VAR Victory Claims to End All Debate—Though Nobody Seems to Have Noticed

What a glorious moment for football's technological evangelists. After West Ham had a late equaliser ruled out against Arsenal, the narrative swiftly emerged that all arguments against VAR have now been conclusively vanquished. Finally, the doubters have been silenced. The future is here. All hail the machines.

Except, well, it rather isn't.

Sky's Rob Dorsett captured the mood perfectly when he tweeted that the London Stadium incident—where goal-line technology detected the ball crossing the line before VAR correctly identified a foul—had put arguments against technology firmly to bed. A tidy conclusion, undoubtedly. One minor problem: nobody else seems to have received the memo.

A cursory glance at the morning's headlines reveals something altogether different. West Ham's official complaint. Demands for rule changes from ex-Premier League officials. Jarrod Bowen's fury. Peter Schmeichel's hypocrisy allegations. Fans insisting a penalty should have been awarded. The Sun's various takes—all of them, it's fair to say, suggesting the matter remains decidedly unsettled.

Then there's the Daily Express, normally possessed of greater restraint, declaring that if referees are going to disallow goals for fouls of this nature, the entire Premier League season requires replaying. Quite the remedy.

The crux of the argument centres on what constitutes a foul at corners. The Express's own analysis concedes that in isolation, West Ham's Pablo holding Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya's arm—preventing him from reaching the ball—is indeed a foul. Impossible to dispute. Yet the broader point about corners being an ungoverned mess all season has merit. Arsenal, it must be noted, have hardly been innocent parties in such chaos.

But replaying a 380-game season because officials have enforced what they deem a clear infringement does seem rather more drastic than the situation warrants.

Meanwhile, Arsenal's summer shopping expedition continues apace. Emmanuel Petit has apparently identified a clear pathway to Kylian Mbappe, contingent primarily on Arsenal winning the Champions League. Winning Europe's premier club competition would certainly send a message, Petit reckons, and Arsenal are indeed one victory away from that achievement.

The logic, whilst not entirely flawed, carries a certain desperation. Petit himself eventually undermines his own thesis, concluding that Mbappe's monumental ego—combined with his unwillingness to depart Real Madrid without silverware—makes a departure highly unlikely. The biggest club in the world, as Petit notes, remains Madrid.

So that path to a dream transfer appears rather heavily strewn with obstacles after all.

What we can say with certainty is this: the VAR argument, contrary to popular proclamation, remains very much alive and kicking.