Ex-Premier League referee blasts Richarlison incident in Everton win v Arsenal
We’re delighted to welcome former Premier League referee Keith Hackett as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at Everton...
Keith Hackett was furious to see Richarlison’s second disallowed goal for Everton on Monday night after VAR judged him to be offside against Arsenal.
As the Blues fought back to win 2-1 at Goodison Park, Richarlison thought he had scored twice before netting an eventual equaliser.
His first goal was fairly ruled offside but the second one saw the Brazilian basically in line with the Arsenal defence before his goal.
Last season was marred by pedantic VAR decisions and before this campaign started, changes were made to do away with offside calls like the one that Richarlison fell victim to on Monday night.
Former Premier League and FIFA referee Hackett was fuming with the decision to rule out Richarlison’s goal.
“I was very disappointed to see the Richarlison goal ruled out for a very marginal decision,” Hackett told Goodison News.
“We were promised at the start of the season that broadcast lines to determine offside would be thicker, doing away with the toenail offside calls.
“This clearly did not happen in this game with VAR determining a ‘toe’ was offside.
“These are the type of decisions that chalk off good goals.
“I hope that the PGMOL management review this one and offer the appropriate operational advice to the VAR and AVAR operators.
“Come on, we want to see goals.“
Richarlison eventually equalised for Everton before Demarai Gray netted in the second minute of stoppage time to end Rafa Benitez’s barren run of Premier League games without a victory.
Benitez has been under a lot of pressure lately and while VAR did it’s best to ruin the occasion on Monday, the quality of his forward line shone through with Richarlison and Gray getting Goodison on it’s feet for all the right reasons.
In other Everton news, Gary Neville has taken aim at the Blues on Sky Sports.
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