Howard Webb insists Alejandro Garnacho’s goal was right to be disallowed despite Erik ten Hag fury

Howard Webb says he’s ‘surprised’ by some of the takes against VAR’s decision to rule out Alejandro Garnacho’s goal against Arsenal.

The PGMOL chief appeared on the first episode of Match Officials: Mic’d Up on Sky Sports to discuss this season’s key VAR calls, and it’s no surprise Arsenal’s tight win over Man United was included.

Howard Webb believes VAR made the right callSky Sports

Despite Ten Hag’s take on Garnacho’s goal being ruled outSky Sports

The Gunners’ last-gasp win had plenty of moments of controversy, including what Man United thought was the winning goal being ruled out for offside and Arsenal getting a penalty decision overturned.

Garnacho had sent the ball into the back of the net in the 88th minute to make it 2-1, only for VAR replays to show he was just ahead of Gabriel after being played through on goal.

VAR then drew lines on the images of Garnacho’s run to prove it, leading the goal to be ruled out. However, Man United boss Erik ten Hag was convinced the officials had got the ‘wrong angle’, saying his winger’s goal should’ve stood in his post-match interview.

But despite Ten Hag’s frustration, Webb is still convinced VAR made the right call.

“I was surprised by some of the comments about this post-match,” Webb said.

“It’s a clear offside situation, the technology was used quite rightly from the calibrated cameras to identify Garnacho was ahead of Gabriel and the goal was quite rightly disallowed after initially being awarded on the field.”

Webb also agreed with VAR’s call on Arsenal having a penalty taken away from them, just as former referee Mike Dean did when debating the incident with Gary Neville.

Arsenal summer signing Kai Havertz went down in the box, falling between Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Casemiro, and referee Anthony Taylor awarded the Gunners a penalty. However, a VAR review led to it being overturned.

The show revealed the conversation between the on-pitch officials and VARSky Sports

They decided Wan-Bissaka had not challenged HavertzSky Sports

The referee was called to the monitor and overturned the spot kick, with footage and audio on Match Officials: Mic’d Up showing those behind the scenes believed Aaron Wan-Bisakka didn’t challenge the former Chelsea man.

On the decision, Webb said: “Yep, good use of VAR. The referee believes Wan-Bissaka had tripped Havertz, the video showed something quite different that there’s no actual contact initially, another step by Havertz, whose leg goes into Wan-Bissaka.

“The VAR really calm and concise, recognises all of that, thinks it’s a clear and obvious error, I agree. Recommends a review of the decision and we get to the right decision.”