Robbery at Stamford Bridge Shows Everything That's Wrong With VAR

There are games where your team loses, but deserved to win. Maybe they didn't finish off their chances, maybe they conceded an unlucky deflected goal, or maybe a silly mistake by one of their players proves costly. Or maybe, as was shown at Stamford Bridge tonight, the referees cost your team the game.
On Monday, Chelsea lost to Manchester United 2-0 at home, blowing the top-four race wide open, with Anthony Martial and Harry Maguire getting the goals for the Red Devils. However, the main talking points of the game were not the two goals that went in, but the two goals that didn't (and a potential red card).
Midway through the first half, Harry Maguire went down under pressure from striker Michy Batshuayi right in front of the Chelsea bench, and proceeded to raise his studs and hit Batshuayi in the groin. The Belgian went down and the bench all stood up in protest, but referee Anthony Taylor was far away from the action and was looking away from it, so he was not in a position to make a decision. However, he was able to consult his VAR (Video Assistant Referee) Chris Kavanagh, who was able to review the footage from the replay center in London, looking at all necessary angles. After the check, he did not feel that it was a red card, and the game continued.
Only two months ago, Tottenham star Heung-Min Son was sent off against Chelsea for a very, very, VERY similar challenge on Antonio Rudiger. He also went down under a heavy, potentially illegal challenge, and in frustration kicked out at the German, hitting his stomach with his studs. The referee, who again was Anthony Taylor, did not get a clear look at it, so VAR assessed the situation and awarded Son a red card. This VAR referee, Paul Tierney, (rightly) felt that such a challenge was endangering the safety of the opponent, so he had to be sent off. Those are the rules that the Premier League has established for referees and VAR this season, and it was properly executed. Only this time, nothing was done and Maguire walked away scot-free.
Fans all over the world reacted to the controversial decision. Former top Premier League referee Mark Halsey said it was a clear red card, as did pundits Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane, the latter a United legend, not to mention former Blue and Gunner Cesc Fabregas. Maguire may well get a ban from the league, but it will have no effect on the game itself.
After the game, Maguire said that he raised his foot to protect Batshuayi for falling, with no harm intended. Maguire, who had just been challenged heavily and pushed to the ground by him, was trying to protect a comfortably-standing Batshuayi from falling by raising his studs towards his body. That is the equivalent of saying "I didn't punch him, he ran into my fist." Clearly there was intent, as there was with Son, but no action was taken.
The VAR controversy didn't stop there, though. After going behind to an excellent Martial glancing header, the Blues leveled the game around the hour mark through a Kurt Zouma finish from a corner, and the nerves at Stamford Bridge were eased, albeit for 45 seconds. As always, VAR had to have its say.
Upon first glance, it appeared that Cesar Azpilicueta had pushed Fred to the ground before the shot from Zouma. However, when looking at the replay, it is clear that Chelsea captain Azpilicueta was previously pushed by another United player, and his momentum carried him into Fred. His hands were raised, but that was only to stop himself from falling after being pushed himself. If anything, it could have been a Chelsea penalty, but the advantage would have been played and the goal would have counted anyway.
Before the introduction of VAR, if Taylor had called a foul against Azpilicueta, that would have been understandable, as it was difficult to spot in live-time. But now that VAR is here, this is inexcusable. Its whole point is to serve as a tool to make the difficult decisions easier for the referees, and the push on Azpilicueta is something that should have been clearly spotted by the VAR officials. This is exactly why it was created, and it failed on the day. Kavanagh looked at the replays and simply disagreed with Taylor, and Taylor was forced to change his ruling.
This is precisely the problem. VAR is not a robot trained in analyzing football plays and making decisions according to the Premier League rulebook. VAR is just another referee, who is looking at replays of a game in which he is not a part of. Barring some extenuating corruption circumstance, the best person to make decisions in a game is the referee of the game itself. Since the VAR official has the replays to back him up, he overrules the actual referee who is there on the field and had to make the decision in the heat of the moment. It is not right to take all of the power out of the referee's hands, and as we have just seen, it is not working.
This is not to say that VAR is a bad idea. It is a great idea, and can be an incredibly helpful tool in making the right calls, but it needs to be the referee itself who is using it. Every game, there is a television screen on the field designed for the referee to look at the replays of events. It is how VAR is used everywhere in the world, except in England. It is not a coincidence that the biggest issues with VAR have been in England, and they have been league-wide, not just accusations against a specific team. In the Premier League, the referee is being told what to do by the officials, instead of making a decision himself based on the footage. That is a huge difference, because the pitchside referee would be making an informed decision having seen the both the replay and the live scenes. He has already made a partial decision based on what he has seen, and is using the replays to back him up. This would bring consistency to VAR, which has been its biggest flaw this season.
Another rule VAR needs to implement is a margin of error for offsides. Too many times this season, and again with Olivier Giroud at the Bridge, we have seen fans and players alike going delirious having scored a goal, only to find out that they were half a toe offside in the buildup. This is killing the excitement of the game, with fans now having to wait to see if VAR will rule the goal out before they can celebrate. If there is a margin of error of 10 cm, then at least the offside calls will be reasonable, instead of losing a game because someone's feet are a centimeter longer than his opponent's. This would make fans appreciate the worth of VAR, while not (sometimes justifiably) blaming it for everything.
If the correct decisions had been made on Monday, Chelsea would have had the man advantage within 25 minutes, at least one goal back, United likely would not have scored their opening goal, and Maguire's sending off would have made it impossible for him to score their second. Instead, United went on to comfortably, on paper at least, win 2-0 and cut Chelsea's 4th-place cushion to just one. In such a colossal game, one which featured great play, the poor officiating unfortunately took center-stage, and may well have cost Chelsea their chance at a win. VAR needs to be fixed, and it needs to be fixed immediately, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again. Not least at the weekend, when Chelsea host Spurs in another colossal game. I think both sets of supporters can agree, as will everyone, that the less VAR intervention in this game, the better.