It seemed that VAR and not the actual football was the deciding factor in the Premier League match as Chelsea lost to Manchester United 0-2. Frank Lampard along with most Chelsea supporters were totally gutted at the decisions made by the video assistant technology.
Chelsea had 2 goals denied by the VAR which would have brought them level with Manchester United.
On top of the goals, Frank Lampard was more irritated with the VAR decision to not issue Manchester United’s Harry Maguire with a red card after he clearly footed Michy Batshuayi in the groin during the first half.
Manchester-born referee Anthony Taylor didnt think this was a red card offence by Maguire.
Neither did Manchester-born Chris Kavanagh who was in charge of VAR. https://t.co/t9S4vrnUth
— Stephen Drennan (@babuyagu) February 17, 2020
Manchester United to the lead just before the halftime interval thanks to a header from Anthony Martial thanks to an assist from Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
The VAR went against the home side once again in the second half when a goal from Kurt Zouma which would have equalised the game for Chelsea was disallowed.
VAR claimed that Cesar Azplicueta pushed Brandon Williams moments before the goal though video footage seemed to indicate that Cesar himself was initially pushed by Fred resulting in the controversial decision.
Harry Maguire’s lucky escape from a red card in the first half came back to haunt Chelsea as Maguire went on to head in the second goal for Manchester United in the 66th minute.
AS if things couldn’t get worse for the Chelsea, the VAR once again came to Manchester United’s defence as a from Olivier Giroud was disallowed because of a fractional offside.
The controversy surrounding the game allowed Ole Solskjaer’s team to walk away with a 0-2 win over Chelsea and give Manchester United their first league double over Chelsea since 1987/88 season.
Frank Lampard had a few words to say about how the VAR had deprived his side of a fair game. He went on to say the following about the controversial decisions made:
“Maguire should get a red card and then he scores the second goal, and the game changes off that,”
“That’s a major part of what VAR was for. The referee can’t see all the angles and if you’re not going to use the pitchside monitor, I don’t understand it.”
“The Zouma goal should have stood. (Cesar) Azpilicueta gets shoved in the first place.”
“It’s certainly not clear and obvious.”
“The Maguire one, it’s just a wrong decision isn’t it, which is harder to take with the presence of VAR than it would have been before.
“Love it or hate it, if something happens and they don’t make the right decision, it’s very confusing to say the least. Everyone I’ve spoken to has said the same thing.”
Manchester United manager Ole Solskjaer, on the other hand, could not have been happier with the outcome of the VAR decisions as he wen ton to defend the Harry Maguire incident saying:
“I think he was fouled and rolled over, and it seems like Batshuayi was going to land on top of him, so he put his leg out to defend himself, protect himself, and it hurts definitely when you get hit there.”
Manchester United now move up to &th place on the Premier League table with 38 points, just 3 points shy of Chelsea who are 4th with 41 points.
The loss means that Tottenham could overtake Chelsea should they beat Chelsea in their Premier League encounter on Saturday.
