“We’re sorry Arsenal fans”: PGMOL admit to VAR failure, begged Mikel Arteta not to insult them this time around

PGMOL admitted that VAR was not used when Arsenal collapsed against West Ham, who were trying to regain first place. From the angles available at Stockley Park, it was impossible to determine whether the ball remained in play during the build-up to Tomas Soucek’s opening goal, so the decision on the pitch to continue play stood.

Arsenal fans insisted that Jarrod Bowen had not kept the ball, but their mood deteriorated in the second half when former Gunners striker Konstantinos Mavropanos headed in James Ward-Prowse’s header to give Arsenal a 2-0 victory, leaving Mikel Arteta’s men in second place, two points behind Liverpool.

Every time Arsene Wenger said “I didn’t see it”, Arsenal fans saw it as a legitimate excuse. Home fans, however, had little interest in dismissing VAR with the same illusion.

Was the ball over the line in the build-up to West Ham’s opening goal or not? One of the images from the advanced technology partially installed to deal with this very problem showed that the ball was still slightly in play.

But in the next image, the ball simply disappeared. Was the ball over the line or was it just hiding behind Jarrod Bowen’s thigh? Stockley Park had no evidence to say for sure, so they had to make a decision on the pitch. Tomas Soucek’s firm finish from close range was allowed.

So many questions, but in reality the VAR situation for Arsenal is even more minimal. More long-term benefits may come from examining why Oleksandr Zinchenko simply ran into Gabriel in the build-up to the 13th minute goal, and whether he has too many of these mistakes in him to sustain a title challenge.

A question that will be addressed next week when the transfer window opens. There are other questions. For seven thrilling minutes, Arsenal had 87% of the possession, but for all the scrambling, trickery and backfires, Arsenal failed to threaten the Arsenal goal even from a distance.

They need someone who regularly puts the ball in the net. In the Champions League, it’s Gabriel Jesus – 24 in 43 games. But his only three Premier League goals are one of the reasons why Arsenal have allowed so many of the games he has dominated to get out of hand.

West Ham doubled their lead when Mavropanos hit the underside of the bar from a Ward-Prowse corner in the 56th minute – his refusal to celebrate was a tribute to eight forgettable games in four years in that position. It was then that Jesus really made the disappointed Arsenal supporters groan.

First Bukayo Saka’s cross straight at Alphonse Areola, then moments later Ben White’s even better cross from close range that hit high over the bar.