OK. That disallowed goal. I accepted it, but basically only because the game was a dead rubber.
But just imagine this horror scenario: imagine if Arsenal had been one point behind or, worse, level on points??! I think I would have been raging, quite honestly. I would have been hopping mad.
Several things: that kind of minor shirt pulling goes on all over the pitch. It goes on from defenders in the penalty area, without penalties being awarded (except to Salah, four seasons back, by the way). Skrtl used to do it all the time – blatantly.
And that brings me to my next point. Round about the fifty minute mark, same thing happened to Bernardo, who went down in the box. Not given by the ref, no intervention by VAR. If I can accept that, then there is equally no reason to accept the intervention by VAR and the cancelled goal.
But above and beyond, we always come back to the same bigger question. VAR's remit. “Clear and obvious.” That's the remit. A clear and obvious foul that the ref and his assistants have missed. There is no way that the linesman missed it! Not from where it was, not from the angle he had on it (I think it unlikely that the ref missed it, incidentally, but let that pass). That's exactly why the Brighton defender turns to him, appealing. VAR should not be intervening in such cases. The touchline assistant saw it, and did not think it merited flagging. End of story. VAR should not intervene.
I take it that the ref can choose not to go to the monitor, incidentally? That he can say, “No, I saw it clearly, or one of my linesmen saw it, and I'm giving that”?
By the way, in a general sense, overall, Brighton were well worth their point. That's not in question.