The Score is Daniel Storey’s weekly verdict on all 20 Premier League teams’ performances. Sign up here to receive the free newsletter every Monday morning
VAR has been a divisive issue in the Premier League ever since its introduction ahead of the 2019-20 season, but rarely has it caused as much widespread consternation as this weekend.
Saturday’s Match of the Day was dominated by erroneous VAR decisions that proved costly: there was a goal awarded that shouldn’t have been, a goal taken away that shouldn’t have been and a penalty that wasn’t given but should have been.
The most significant call was at the Emirates, where Ivan Toney’s late equaliser for Brentford was allowed to stand despite two players being offside in the build-up.
A 1-1 draw ensured that Arsenal dropped points for the second consecutive weekend, allowing Manchester City to reduce the gap to three points ahead of Wednesday’s pivotal top-of-the-table clash.
This weekend’s results
Saturday 11 February
Crystal Palace 1-1 Brighton
Fulham 2-0 Nottingham Forest
Leicester 4-1 Tottenham
Bournemouth 1-1 Newcastle
Sunday 12 February
Leeds 0-2 Man Utd
Monday 13 February
Liverpool vs Everton
Arsenal
I promise you that life was simpler before VAR. The introduction of VAR, and with it the implicit claim that problems were likely to be solved, not eased, by technology was lamentable and there are those of us who have always believed as much.
VAR is not technology making decisions. VAR’s are not robots. VAR’s are human beings being asked to make decisions based on their own interpretation – and use – of video footage. Human beings make mistakes. Just as referees made mistakes before the introduction of VAR, now VAR officials make mistakes. That was always going to happen because it happens in every industry in every walk of life under comparable conditions.
But it was never sold that way. To appease those who could not accept mistakes when they were made by referees on the field of play, they introduced a new system and told those same people that their fears would be appeased. Never mind that they would still be making subjective decisions.
Never mind that mistakes would still occur because we are not perfect. Never mind that the refereeing industry was already operating in conditions that make the job harder and never mind that abuse culture will eventually take it to breaking point.
PGMOL statement
On Sunday, the Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) released the following statement:
PGMOL can confirm its chief refereeing officer Howard Webb has contacted both Arsenal and Brighton & Hove Albion to acknowledge and explain the significant errors in the VAR process in their respective Premier League fixtures on Saturday.
Both incidents, which were due to human error and related to the analysis of offside situations, are being thoroughly reviewed by PGMOL.
I do not expect this to make Arsenal supporters feel better. I can fully understand why they and Brighton fans are fuming. One club potentially missed the chance to extend their lead at the top of the table and the other to beat their fiercest rivals and reinforce their chance of qualifying for Europe for the first time in their history. They have been undone by two lapses in competence and I feel sympathy for them for it.
I can’t condone the accusations of corruption or the abuse that will be directed at the officials, but then that has become fair game now. There exists an established cultural norm whereby a player or manager making a very foolish mistake is quickly forgiven, but an official doing the same is fair justification for rancid abuse. Whatever the explanation, it won’t change now and I’m sick of being called an apologist for saying it!
None of this helps the situation now. Howard Webb will call to make apologies. Referees will be stood down. Efforts will be redoubled. The audience will – entirely reasonably – demand better because the Premier League is awash with cash and so why shouldn’t the standards of officiating rise to its peak too. And everyone will miss the point that if you stand down a referee, another official who is, at this point, considered to be less capable will take their place.
We have a refereeing shortage. It’s going to get worse. These are the best referees we have and if they aren’t good enough, there isn’t a magical Narnia wardrobe of better options.
I don’t know where we go from here, or whether things will improve, but it’s hard to see a happy ending. Arsenal and Brighton were let down this weekend. But this is a multi-faceted, complex problem and there is blame due on every single side of it.
Aston Villa
By Ian Whittell
Unai Emery remains a hit with Villa fans, even if their first half capitulation at the Etihad briefly threatened to turn ugly.
A defeat that was predictable, given the mood music around the Etihad this week, did not banish the ghosts of that poor performance and four-goal home defeat to Leicester last weekend.
But a run of five wins, and just two defeats, in his eight league games in charge is most definitely a step in the right direction, compared to the Steven Gerrard era.
January signings Alex Moreno and Jhon Duran came off the bench and showed promise, as Villa put in a much-improved final half hour.
And there was a decent display from Philippe Coutinho, who has not started a league game since early October, but looked a threat when he was sent on, with Villa chasing the game.
A run for the European places looks beyond Emery’s grasp this season – but nor should the other end of the table be a concern.
A home meeting with leaders Arsenal awaits next week but a run of games follows – Everton, West Ham, Palace and Bournemouth – which could make the league table look even rosier for Villa fans.
Bournemouth
With Dominic Solanke back from injury, we finally got a look at the new Bournemouth post their January spending. And we liked what we saw. Solanke played in front of the playmaker Hamed Traore and with Jaidon Anthony and Dango Ouattara as the two wingers. That pushed Philip Billing back into a more defensive role alongside Jefferson Lerma.
It worked really well against high-quality opposition. Solanke had five shots, a total he’s beaten once all season in a league game (and that was against Everton). The new playmaker (Traore) created four chances and the new winger (Ouattara) created three. Bournemouth were the better team for long periods.
There is still an issue of how Bournemouth manage to limit their opponents’ shot-taking – five different Newcastle players took two or more on Saturday – but that might well change as Billing gets more accustomed back in his original position. Bournemouth had to reinvent their attack if they were going to have a chance of staying up because they have the lowest expected goals total of any team. They have rolled the dice. Now let’s see if it works…
Brentford
Another day on which Brentford took steps forward and proved again just how impressive this second season is despite a lack of transfer activity over the summer and in January. We wrote about Thomas Frank’s side this week and boy did they make it look timely.
If there is one fly in Brentford’s ointment, it is the looming uncertainty surrounding Ivan Toney’s immediate future with Football Association betting charges hanging over him. Because if there is one player within Brentford’s system who really does look irreplaceable on Brentford’s likely budget, it is Toney.
On Saturday, he bullied and battered William Saliba, one of the finest central defenders in the league this season. Toney won 12 headers, which both demonstrates Brentford’s tactic to try and unnerve Arsenal and their success in doing so. Their other strategy, soaking up pressure and launching quick counters that exposed how high up the pitch Oleksandr Zinchenko ventured, also brought joy.
Toney recently picked out Didier Drogba as the perfect example for him to try and follow. Watching him win aerial battles, sprint forward on counter attacks, hold up the ball and generally be an absolute nuisance to defend against, I think he’s now the closest the Premier League has seen since Drogba.
Brighton
We are witnessing one of the most spectacular transformations in recent Premier League history. Before Boxing Day this season, Solly March had gone 25 months – and 58 league matches – without a goal. It became a running joke amongst supporters: when will Solly ever score again? Since then, March has scored four goals in seven league games.
March believes that the secret is simple: he’s playing the same role every week after starting his first three league games under Roberto De Zerbi in three different positions. That position is also more attacking than usual. We have seen how many chances Kaoru Mitoma is creating for himself and others; that means that March can often be the latent weapon.
“The details De Zerbi wants from every pass and every touch, that really helps,” March told The Athletic at the beginning of the month “Him driving us forward. I’ve always said that when I get a run of games in a set position, I play my best football and that has shown.”
But De Zerbi is also demanding that March take more chances to make the run into the box when he doesn’t have the ball, and to sometimes drive infield when he does have it. Since De Zerbi was appointed, March has had 62 touches of the ball in the opposition penalty area. During Brighton’s entire stay in the Premier League, the most March had previously managed in a full season is 60. Sometimes even the most spectacular transformation comes with a very obvious explanation.
Chelsea
Marc Cucurella should have been the Chelsea signing who feels most comfortable at the club. He was signed in early August and had extensive Premier League experience. He has started 17 league games. He is now playing under the same coach who turned him into a £60m footballer.
At Brighton, Cucurella was a bundle of energy. He drove high up the pitch, regularly interchanged possession with Leandro Trossard, made tackles, challenged in the air and was comfortable playing out from the back. At Chelsea, Cucurella looks a totally different player and that’s not intended as a compliment.
Going forward, Cucurella is crossing less often and he’s creating virtually half the number of chances as he did last season, despite being in a team that has far more of the ball. He has this frustrating tendency to push forward with the ball and, rather than passing the ball to the left winger ahead of him, turn back and play a pass into a crowded midfield. Mykhailo Mudryk was crying out for possession to run at Vladimir Coufal.
But it’s in defence where Cucurella looks most exposed. The number of times he is being caught out of position, particularly on crosses coming into the box, is concerning. So is his tendency to make rash tackles to try and atone for those positional lapses.
Crystal Palace
This is no great secret, but we’re going to have to talk about Crystal Palace’s chance creation again. They got a draw against Brighton this weekend, thanks to Robert Sanchez and James Tomkins and some resilient defending, but they were also outplayed for long periods.
What Patrick Vieira wants is for Palace to be resolute defensively and then break on teams on the counter, rather like what Brentford are able to do. What actually happens is that Palace are either unable to break effectively or struggle to find a striker that can get into the positions to turn a promising break into a clear chance.
The data is worrying. If we rank every Premier League player (taking out those who have only played a handful of games) by their number of shots taken per 90 minutes, you might roughly expect every club to at least have one representative in the top 30. Palace’s first representative is at no 39 and that’s Eberechi Eze who, clearly, is not a striker.
Jean-Philippe Mateta, who started against Brighton, hasn’t played enough minutes to qualify, has at least managed 3.17 shots per 90 minutes across his 501 league minutes, a better record than anyone else at the club. But then Mateta suffers from another problem: he doesn’t finish the chances he does get. Scoring with somewhere between one in every four or five shots is the benchmark for a good Premier League striker, unless the attack is built around them taking a high volume of shots. During his time in the Premier League, Mateta has scored at a rate of one goal for every 8.42 shots. This season, he’s scored once from 18.
Everton
Play against Liverpool on Monday evening.
Fulham
Having seen how badly Willian’s move to Arsenal went in 2020-21, there was some understandable reservation from Fulham supporters at their club signing him two years later, particularly given his lack of success at Corinthians in the interim. Willian had just turned 34 and had played almost 750 senior career matches for club and country. Even if he had the stomach for another crack at the Premier League, would he still have the legs?
Erm, yes. Willian has been a revelation, proving that he was not signing for Fulham just because he wanted to move back to west London and was all out of other options. His chance creation puts him above every other Fulham regular and he’s now also scored three league goals. On Saturday, he made Serge Aurier look very foolish indeed.
The toppest of top bins.
— Fulham Football Club (@FulhamFC) February 11, 2023#FULNFO pic.twitter.com/77ntxsZmra
Credit obviously goes to the player himself, but this is also a result of the culture that Marco Silva has instilled. There are no free passes, nobody carries anyone else and nobody gets in the team if they aren’t committed fully to the project. Those who wrote Silva off several years ago after his departures from Watford, Hull and Everton should eat their words.
Leeds
By Mark Douglas, i‘s northern football correspondent
Leeds United do not have the component parts of a relegation team.
A midfield of industry and endeavour that was re-stocked expensively in January, young forwards with international experience and a public that has steadfastly refused to turn on them. And yet the Premier League table provides an alarming reminder of the jeopardy they’re in ahead of a close season that should see the club change hands and welcome fresh American investment and impetus.
Quite what 49ers Enterprises have made of the last week’s attempts to appoint Andoni Iraola and then Arne Slot is unclear. But there is a lot riding on the belief of those in charge that the squad just needs a decent coach to draw clear of the danger they’re currently in.
Jesse Marsch and Marcelo Bielsa have left the building in the last year but Victor Orta, the mastermind of Leeds’ footballing operations, remains. The pressure is on.
Leicester
Kelechi Iheanacho’s Leicester City career has been more stop-start than a milk float. He’s now been at the club for five-and-a-half years, which is impossible to believe because it has always felt like he’s about six months away from settling in properly. He’s never started more than 16 games in a Premier League season and yet has scored more than 50 times in all competitions.
The decline in Jamie Vardy, which we can now safely label as permanent, has created an opportunity that Iheanacho seems increasingly likely to take. If anything, Brendan Rodgers persevered with Vardy for too long. Iheanacho has now started three league games this season and has seven goals and assists. Vardy has two fewer in more than 700 extra minutes. There is now no decision to make.
It works so well for Leicester because Iheanacho is an incredibly selfless forward. There’s no doubt that he is occasionally guilty of missing high-quality chances, but the manner in which he drifts wide and deep to link together play is incredibly effective in a team that contains one of the most prolific attacking midfield combinations in world football.
I know that last line sounds hyperbolic, but it honestly isn’t. The goals and assist contributions of James Maddison and Harvey Barnes over the last four years is incredible and it feels like people are still sleeping on them as a partnership (although Maddison clearly gets lots of praise). This season, 23 combined league goals and assists despite Maddison being injured for a while). Last season, 36. In 2020-21, 26 despite both players missing time through injury. In 2019-20, 23 despite Barnes only starting 24 league games.
That pair alone have scored or created 108 times in three-and-a-half seasons. If Iheanacho can get a run in the team and dovetail with them, Leicester will make their current league position look as ridiculous as it always did.
Liverpool
Play against Everton on Monday evening.
Man City
By Ian Whittell
Although City ran out of steam in the second half, they did not need to produce any – the win having been guaranteed before the break – and the Blues now look forward to an opportunity they could scarcely have foreseen as recently as last weekend.
Arsenal’s stunning defeat at Everton, followed by a draw with Brentford, means that City can return to the top of the table with victory at the Emirates on Wednesday.
They may not be playing with their usual swagger and Erling Haaland’s goals may have “dried up” – “only” four in his last seven games.
But Pep Guardiola’s team now looks to have a real chance of becoming the first team since Manchester United in 2009 to win three consecutive titles.
In the short-term, the greater concern may be Haaland, who was subbed at half-time yesterday as a precaution following treatment on what looked like a hamstring injury. And, over the remainder of the campaign, there are still numerous issues for Guardiola to face.
For the time being, at least, their league campaign could well hinge on events in north London on Wednesday.
Man Utd
By Mark Douglas, i‘s northern football correspondent
Erik ten Hag is not the sort of manager to sugarcoat it, so Manchester United’s players can expect as many brick bats as bouqets this week.
His side was desperate for long periods at Elland Road, missing the Rolls Royce of their engine room Casemiro but also any of the composure or collective thrust that has become their identity under the Dutchman. Only Leeds’ wasteful finishing allowed them the platform to mount the late smash-and-grab victory that ensured they remain in the driving seat for Champions League qualification.
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But in the morass of such a mediocre display is where Ten Hag earns his corn. His canny move to drop the anonymous Wout Weghorst deeper, thus protecting his underpowered midfield and allowing Marcus Rashford a run through the middle, tipped the balance. The late introduction of Alejandro Garnacho as Leeds legs tired won it.
It has been a long time since the Red Devils had someone in the dugout who can make such a difference.
Newcastle
One thing that Newcastle’s new owners, players, manager and the more reasonable supporters are going to have to accept over the next few years is that having the richest owners in world football means that expectations among the more desperate elements of the club’s fanbase will run wild. And wild expectations means angry criticisms when things don’t go their way.
Newcastle have lost one league game this season. They have reached the final of the EFL Cup, their first domestic cup final in over 20 years. If you ignore the morality issues of the club’s owners (and many have), times have rarely been better. And yet you take a look at the reaction to the club’s draw at Bournemouth and you feel like shaking those supporters and telling them to cast their minds back a year.
Newcastle are dropping too many points to make their pursuit of a top-four place certain (although Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool are hardly chasing them down). There is a growing sense that a) opposition teams have worked out how to thwart them, b) that Eddie Howe has been slightly slow to react to that problem and c) that the squad depth cannot cover for the absence of one or two key players.
But to see the reaction was genuinely quite shocking, and not all from those intent on causing mischief or perennially glum. Suddenly Dan Burn, the local lad back to do good, needs moving out of the team as soon as possible. Suddenly Howe is undermining progress. Suddenly there are weird grumbles of discontent. Check your privilege, guys.
Nottingham Forest
There’s a chance that Forest can survive relegation on home form alone. They have taken 18 points from 11 games at the City Ground and have still to play Everton, Wolves and Southampton there. Win all three and Forest reach 33 points – they would likely only need another five to be safe.
Still, that doesn’t make their lamentable away goalscoring record acceptable. Forest have picked up an unhelpful habit of being unable to string passes together in the first half of their matches, inviting pressure that sometimes they repel (Leeds at home last week) and sometimes they don’t (Fulham on Saturday). They were mighty fortunate to beat Leeds; this weekend a more clinical opponent punished them.
I know supporters don’t want to hear it, but I think that signing 30 players plays a part in that. Nobody is saying that Forest didn’t need significant reinforcements and nobody is saying that every signing has been a failure – both are ludicrous exaggerations of the very valid point that if you sign more players than any English club ever has before, it’s going to take a long time to look like a settled team.
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The injuries to both central defenders obviously didn’t help, but this has been a pattern for too long for it to be a coincidence. In those first halves, when passing is panicked, clearances rushed and Forest seem to be playing on their nerves, Steve Cooper’s team literally look like they’re working each other out. In the last 30 minutes against Leeds, the defence was mighty solid. In the last 30 minutes against Fulham, Forest finally began to knit together moves. But this division is too strong for you to win many games with 30-minute performances.
At the City Ground, Forest are evidently inspired by the atmosphere – that has made a difference. They have also enjoyed more luck than on the road. The missed penalties by West Ham and Crystal Palace and missed chances by Liverpool produced three monumentally important 1-0 wins. Away from home, against opponents who are more committed to pushing forward and creating chances, Forest look spooked.
Norwich City hold the record for the fewest away goals scored in a Premier League season. Forest need to more than double their current total in their final seven games to beat it and they still have to travel to three of the “Big Six”.
Southampton
The most astounding element of Nathan Jones’ brief Southampton tenure is just how quickly he made an entire fanbase believe that there was no hope.
Most of them are already convinced that their club will be relegated and that they deserve it. That’s nonsense, really: Southampton have more than 40 per cent of their league season remaining and, as Jones was sacked, they were four points from safety.
That is the only positive flipside to the madness of what just happened. Jones struggled so much and so immediately that there is still time to save this season. Had he limped on for much longer, only for it to eventually end where it always seemed likely to end, relegation would be a certainty. It’s a heck of an epitaph on your reign: it was such a bad time, but at least it wasn’t a long time.
This really was one of the most bizarre management spells in Premier League history. Jones arrived with a reputation for making the best of difficult situations with Luton, lost eight of his nine matches, alienated every Southampton supporter, labelled himself as statistically the best manager in Europe and insisted that he was only struggling to win games because he had listened to too many people. His press conferences became appointment viewing; that’s rarely a good sign.
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The final act, the last flourish of this ludicrously awful three months, could not have been written or timed better. Southampton were far better in the first half, the combination of big striker (Paul Onuachu) and tricky playmaker (Kamaldeen Sulemana) causing Wolves problems. They established a one-goal and one-man advantage. And still that was nothing but the setup to the punchline.
Jones claimed that Wolves having a player sent off was the worst thing that could have happened to Southampton, sensationally damning his own ability to maintain a shred of confidence. The equaliser was majestic, the central defender that supporters didn’t want to re-sign who was picked over the popular Duje Caleta-Car, scoring a comedy own goal because he got the ball lost under his own feet. At that point, defeat and Jones’ demise was inevitable.
Rarely have we seen a manager become so unpopular so quickly. Jones read the room appallingly, never looked able to either implement his own style (and, whatever he says, that is on him) and left one of the more mild-mannered groups of fans in the Premier League apoplectic with anger.
Another vaguely positive spin: whoever replaces Jones will be popular by comparison.
Tottenham
Was this the weekend when Tottenham’s season finally suffered its most damaging blow? It started with the team sheet, a goalkeeper and back three that made you wince a little, given the absentees: Forster, Tanganga, Davies and Dier. Cristian Romero will be back very soon; the same is not true of Hugo Lloris.
There are ways to react to adversity – this isn’t it. Tottenham were a rabble from the moment they conceded the opening goal, as if Nampalys Mendy’s rocket shattered any illusion of confidence. The nadir came with Leicester’s third goal just before half-time, when Eric Dier was inexplicably 20 yards behind his defensive colleague and so left one vs one against Kelechi Iheanacho. He backed off and failed to either make a challenge or close the angle. Iheanacho’s shot was telegraphed and still Forster couldn’t save it.
That pattern continued throughout the afternoon. Tottenham’s players were repeatedly caught in possession or squandered it through slack passes and touches. Pedro Porro, the new signing at right wing-back, will quickly learn that you do not get three seconds on the ball to pick your best option.
Dier, one of the senior members of the team, was regularly caught out of position and was eventually booked for a dim foul. Last weekend’s grit against Manchester City was entirely absent.
The worst news, for the longer term at least, came in the second half when Rodrigo Bentancur hobbled off with a knee injury. If the Champions League is Tottenham’s last salvation this season, they will likely travel to Milan this midweek with a central midfield combination of Oliver Skipp and Pape Sarr – Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is suspended.
Lingering hopes of a top-four finish remain for now, at least on inspection of the league table. But ask any of those who travelled to Leicester to stand and sing in the away end on Saturday if they expect to achieve that goal. To do that you need class; they can’t manage competence. To do that you need guts to cope when adversity comes your way; Spurs looked broken in two as soon as Leicester made it difficult. “Tottenham get battered, everywhere they go,” sang three sides of the King Power as full-time approached. It really does feel like that sometimes.
West Ham
Welcome to this week’s edition of “So you thought you knew the handball rule?”. Strap in because we have a doozy. I used to be good at this game; now I’m averaging less that a one-in-two hit rate.
Watching Tomas Soucek’s “block” in real time and it looked like he saved the shot. Watching Soucek’s “block” on the initial replay and it looked like he saved the shot. Watch the same incident three or four times on super-slow motion and it looked like Soucek saved it. I can understand why the referee didn’t award the penalty. I cannot fathom why the VAR official failed to overturn it.
Chelsea players thought they had a penalty for handball, but VAR says no…
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 11, 2023pic.twitter.com/popnClPiUj
If the argument was that Soucek’s hand was in a natural position because he was falling over, I’m not buying it. Soucek chose to go to the ground to try and block the shot, and so takes the risk if he then extends his arm beyond the silhouette of his body. When the ball then hits that arm, particularly when it makes Soucek look like a goalkeeper playing without gloves, that only makes a stronger case.
Finally, look at Soucek’s face. He knows. He looks haunted, like a hungover student suddenly remembering the shot they had forgotten about from the night before and instantly feeling three times more sick.
Wolves
This point is far easier to make because Wolves won, and so supporters are likely to be more open to the point. We must also say that this was an embarrassing weekend for officiating in the Premier League, thanks to the human errors made in the VAR control room over Brentford’s goal and Brighton’s non-goal.
But I want to talk about Mario Lemina’s second yellow card, which was awarded for dissent. The Birmingham Mail reported it in the following way: “It is harsh to criticise Lemina without knowing exactly what he said to Gillett to warrant a second yellow card. Yes, he should have known better, but in fairness to Lemina you see numerous examples of what he did go completely unpunished in every game.” Other reporters at the game also criticised the decision.
Now hang on, but dissent is a yellow card offence. You can criticise referees if you want, but if a player is stupid enough to commit that offence when on a yellow card then it’s on them. Anything else is victim-blaming. You can indeed make the point that other players commit the same offence and get away with it (although we don’t know what Lemina said so we cannot know if they are comparable), but “they got away with it” isn’t a defence.
If we are to stamp out the abuse crisis that will only make refereeing standards worse, we need more not less of this. And yes, I’m fully aware that this is no longer a popular opinion because there is a growing swell of opinion, perhaps even a majority now, who believe that referees merit this abuse because of declining standards. Which is just wilfully blind of the likely future we face.
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