Arsenal get new penalty VAR verdict as Anthony Taylor decision picked apart

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Leandro Trossard's second-half strike was enough for Arsenal to see off Fulham on Saturday evening. The Gunners stretched their advantage at the top of the table to three points after Trossard scored from a corner just before the hour mark at Craven Cottage.

However, moments before the forward's breakthrough, Bukayo Saka appeared to have won his team a spot-kick when he was brought down on the edge of the box by substitute Kevin. Without hesitating, referee Anthony Taylor awarded the penalty , but he was quickly called to the pitchside monitor to assess the incident.

Upon review, he reversed his original call . Steve Sidwell reckons Taylor was mistaken to alter his verdict and Arsenal ought to have been given a penalty.

"When I first saw it, I said penalty," the former Premier League midfielder said in Sky Sports . "I was surprised that it wasn't kept as 'given', because where VAR's gone so far and where football has gone, it's been so clinical, it's been very much black or white, no grey areas.

"We can clearly see here, there is contact knee on knee on the player before Kevin then gets to the ball. In my opinion, it should have been a penalty."

Jamie Redknapp agreed that the decision didn't reach the bar for a VAR intervention. He said: "If we take it the other way, and the referee doesn't give it, VAR would have looked at it, but I don't think they would have given it.

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"But like Steve says, is it enough to intervene, is it a clear and obvious error? No, I don't think so. And that's where the disappointment will be for Bukayo."

Speaking to reporters after the game, Mikel Arteta offered his account of events. The Arsenal boss said: "I was getting animated because it was taking so long.

"I asked Anthony, 'Why is it taking so long?' It was nothing to do with the process; it was just that the screen wasn't working.

"It probably wasn't a penalty so they made the right decision in the end, and I was just animated because of the process."

Reflecting on the victory, Arteta said: "The recent history wasn't in our favour and we wanted to change that, like we did against Newcastle and West Ham at home.

"And this is another step to having that mindset and that ability to win these kind of matches against a really good opposition, and a really difficult place to come.

"When the context is 0-0, and the game gets longer and longer it becomes more difficult, but we showed a lot of maturity. We kept knocking on the door in various ways, and in the end we found a way, with the set-piece to do it but we deserved it."

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