‘I can’t believe…’ – Gary Neville surprised by ‘Weird’ situation he witnessed at Everton vs Arsenal
Gary Neville expressed astonishment at Gabriel Martinelli’s disallowed goal for Arsenal against Everton, describing it as “weird” and not appearing correct.
The Sky Sports pundit provided live commentary for the match on Sunday (17 September) and witnessed the Brazilian seemingly giving the visitors the lead after 19 minutes, only for VAR to nullify it due to an offside call against Eddie Nketiah in the build-up.
Neville admitted he was “confused” by the way the decision had been made and questioned whether the angle used for the video assistant’s ruling was the most suitable, characterizing the whole incident as “little bit strange.”
Neville said (16.15pm): “In the first 20 minutes of the match they’ve just been waiting to get beaten, and get beaten they will if they carry on like this…”
As the VAR review emerged he reacted: “Oh, that’s weird. Is there no better angle than that? Even I’m a little confused.
“It looked like he was well behind… We saw one a couple of weeks ago, Arsenal were involved against Manchester United and Erik ten Hag complained about not having the correct camera angle to have it in line. That all looked a little bit strange shall we say.”
Peter Drury suggested the touch off Beto may have negated an offside and Neville added: “Yeah, it came off the Everton player… look, that one’s a strange one for me. With how many cameras at the ground I can’t believe we wouldn’t have a better angle of the actual offside than that…
“They should take that as a real warning sign, Everton, because they’ve got to be better… Gabriel plays the ball and it deflects forward off the Everton player.. still from that angle you’re guessing at whether he’s offside or not really…
“The lines we go with, the goal’s disallowed, Everton get a lifeline. I mean it looks to me to be a little bit of guess work in terms of the blue line I have to say.”
The angle displayed on television did indeed create challenges for a clear visual assessment, but the fundamental purpose of employing technology is to eliminate the difficulties associated with depth perception when making judgments from awkward angles.
The contact from Beto might have nullified the offside decision, but if it was determined that the Portuguese player wasn’t intentionally playing the ball, then it didn’t have any bearing on the outcome.
The situation was closely contested, and it’s evident that many people are still uncertain about the workings of VAR. However, it appears that the correct decision was ultimately reached, and for once, Everton found themselves on the wrong end of a tight decision.
Despite enduring an initial onslaught, Sean Dyche’s team seemed to have committed a costly error by conceding a goal to Martinelli, but they were spared from this mishap.
Amadou Onana and James Tarkowski both hesitated during the build-up, expecting an offside call, and they were only rescued by VAR’s intervention.
Had the goal been permitted, which was a very close call in terms of offside, the manager would have been furious with his players’ lack of concentration, and it’s a matter he is likely to address regardless of the final decision.
‘I can’t believe…’ – Gary Neville surprised by ‘Weird’ situation he witnessed at Everton vs Arsenal
