VAR error cost Brighton penalty against Arsenal

Brighton should have been awarded a penalty in their 1-0 loss against Arsenal on March 4th at home, according to the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents (KMI) Panel. The incident involved Brighton midfielder Mats Wieffer, who was hauled down in the box by Gabriel Martinelli in the third minute of first-half stoppage time. Referee Chris Kavanagh allowed play to continue, and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), Michael Salisbury, did not intervene.

The KMI Panel voted 4:1 that a penalty should have been awarded on the field and 3:2 that it was a missed VAR intervention, stating that Martinelli was not looking at the ball and prevented Wieffer from challenging for it. This marks the second time this season that Arsenal has wrongly escaped a VAR penalty in a game they won by one goal. In December, Everton should have been awarded a penalty for William Saliba’s challenge on Thierno Barry, with Michael Salisbury also serving as the VAR for that match.

The KMI Panel also ruled that Newcastle United forward Jacob Ramsey should not have received a second yellow card in their 2-1 win over Manchester United at St. James’ Park. Ramsey was sent off in added time at the end of the first half for simulation after running past goalkeeper Senne Lammens. The panel judged, by a vote of 3:2, that Ramsey’s left foot appeared to slip and that it wasn’t an attempt to deceive the referee.

There have now been 18 VAR errors logged by the independent panel this season, matching the total for the entire 2024-25 campaign, but lower than the 35 mistakes in 2022-23 and the 31 in 2023-24. The panel also determined that Leeds United should have been given a penalty in their 1-0 loss at home to Sunderland for Luke O’Nien’s holding offence on Pascal Struijk.