How the VAR judgment calls have gone for Arsenal - 2024/25

Reviewing and keeping track of how the calls have gone for Arsenal for the 2024-25 season

Talking about referees and the decisions is not the most fun thing to do but it is a fact of life.

Because of this, I have decided it is good to keep a record of the most contentious calls that involve Arsenal and see how the decisions break down over the year. There is a feeling in the fanbase that things are heavily tilted against Arsenal but without tracking you’ll never know for sure; from last year’s exercise, it came out pretty close to 50/50 on the total calls, with a slight lean toward Arsenal getting fewer calls in their direction.

It seems like people liked the tracking so I am back doing it again.

For this, I will generally use Dale Johnson’s VAR report as the basis for tracking if things rise to the level of contentious and if others are missed I will add them and note that it was not in the report. I will use what he says and give my thoughts while tracking the overall decisions.

Contentious Call Tracking:

Calls for Arsenal: 7

Calls against Arsenal: 13

VAR overturn: 1 (0 sent to monitor, 1 for an incorrect offside call)

VAR Stay with the on-field call: 17 (3 were not reviewed by VAR for various reasons)

Expected calls for Arsenal on my gut feeling: 8.6 vs 7

Expected calls against Arsenal on my gut feeling: 11.5 vs 13

Net Value of decisions: -1.98 goals

updated 10/8/2024

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Arsenal 3-1 Southampton

Possible offside: Merino and Martinelli on Martinelli goal

On Arsenal’s second goal, Saka delivers a cross to the back post. Both Martinelli and Merino are potentially there to try and score from it. The offside line is close, on replay Merino is offside and the goal scorer Martinelli is onside.

The question then turns to did Merino’s action rise to the level to impact the play.

Here is Dale Johnson in his report:

While Martinelli was onside, Mikel Merino wasn't, though the VAR quickly cleared the Spain international as having no involvement. Merino seemed to make a movement toward the ball as it floated over to the goal scorer. While making an obvious action when in an offside position is usually an offence, we're back to that word again: impact. The attacker's movement has to affect an opposition player.

So the only question for the VAR was whether Merino had any impact on Aaron Ramsdale [because there were no other defenders in the area]. Would the goalkeeper have made an attempt to cut out the cross, or closed down Martinelli sooner, had Merino not been there? It's a valid question, but with Ramsdale on his line as the cross came over, it's tough to make a case that there was enough impact for the goal to be disallowed.

This is a close one.

Watching the full video I come away still on the side (which is where my bias would be as well) that this doesn’t make an impact. Merino does start his jump for the ball, but he really doesn’t make the usual effort that you would expect, suggesting he didn’t think he could get there or he got a call from Martinelli to leave it.

Watching Ramsdale, he seems to slide across the goal in one motion not changing his movement for Merino at all as well.

If this is called against Merino you can understand why. To try and not be overly influenced by my own bias I am going to call this a 50/50 (my true rating would be more 30/70 for offside) for being judged as offside.

The shot for Martinelli is a 40% so this is 0.2 goal decision for Arsenal.

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Arsenal 4-2 Leicester

Possible foul before a goal: Saliba on Vardy