Gary Lineker has had his say on the VAR controversy in the Premier League over the weekend, much to the amusement of Micah Richards.
Title rivals Arsenal and Manchester City both benefitted from questionable VAR calls in their victories over Bournemouth and Wolves respectively on Saturday. The Gunners were not only awarded a dubious penalty when Kai Havertz went down after making minimal contact with Cherries keeper Mark Travers, but were also spared when VAR ruled out a second-half Bournemouth goal for a soft foul on David Raya.
City, meanwhile, got off the mark against Wolves after referee Craig Pawson controversially deemed a coming-together between Josko Gvardiol and Rayan Ait-Nouri a foul by the latter, and pointed to the penalty spot.
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Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, Lineker said both teams got “lucky”, but admitted they “probably would’ve won easily anyway”. He added: “The Man City first penalty was [questionable],” before accusing colleague Richards of “wavering” when the call was made, prompting the former defender to burst out laughing.
“I was watching you, you were going, ‘I’m not sure, maybe’, but you’re a Man City ambassador,” Lineker joked. “Obviously the Arsenal one was a bit of a cock-up, but I don’t think they influenced results.”
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Richards then attempted to defend the decision to award Man City’s penalty, saying: “Whether we think it’s a penalty or not, what is [Ait-Nouri] doing? If you slow it down it looks like a penalty every time. He’s not giving the referee and VAR [much choice].
“If it was given you’d say OK, if it isn’t given [you’d also say OK]. I thought it was 50-50.”
The panel then moved on to the Havertz penalty incident, and both Lineker and Alan Shearer thought the referee had got the decision right. “That was a penalty,” the former Barcelona striker said. “The keeper comes out rashly, misses the ball completely. Why should a centre forward leap out of the way of it?”
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“Correct,” Shearer replied. “If the keeper’s stupid enough to come out like that then you’re inviting contact. The forward shouldn’t have to jump over him.”
Arsenal ended up smashing three past Bournemouth without reply while City took Wolves to the cleaners with a 5-1 win, meaning both clubs are still neck-and-neck at the top of the table. Mikel Arteta’s men are a point in front, but victory is in City’s hands given the fact they have a game in hand.