PGMOL apologize to Arsenal and Brighton after costly errors

The Professional Game Match Officials Limited, the body in charge of referees in the Premier League has issued an apology through its president Howard Webb to both Arsenal and Brighton who were victims of controversial errors in their respective league matches.

Arsenal conceded a late equaliser against Brentford in their 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium, but further review showed that the goal should not have stood since there was a Brentford player in an offside position in the build up to the goal.

Brighton suffered a similar fate in their 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.

Pervis Estupinian thought he had given Brighton the lead, but his goal was chalked off for an alleged offside.

On further inspection, it was obvious that Estupinan’s goal should have stood, but the VAR referee made an error by drawing the offside line from the wrong Crystal Palace player.

Both events were deemed clear and obvious human errors and have now resulted in an official apology to both clubs.

Although Arsenal and Brighton were the only two clubs to receive apologies, many other Premier League clubs would have come away from their matches feeling they deserved one too.

Chelsea’s Graham Potter might have only responded by saying “That's life” to this error in their game against West Ham, but their Twitter Admin has already branded Tomas Soucek a goalkeeper after he stopped a Conor Gallagher shot with his hands in the penalty area without being penalised.

Wolves’ Ruben Neves was also left amused by the decision of the referee to give Gabonese midfielder Mario Lemina a second yellow card in their match against Southampton with the midfielder’s only crime being that he was the third player to approach the referee in protest of another decision.