Arsenal were let off in the Champions League last night for IDENTICAL Newcastle VAR calamity

Admittedly, I do feel a bit hypocritical to keep complaining about the Newcastle VAR robbery which occured on Tuesday evening. Particularly since we spent ages ridiculing Mikel Arteta for confronting VAR, we are now doing exactly the same thing. But when need's must, we have every right to call our poor officiating claims, particularly when they lead to a last-minute penalty to potentially stop us from progressing in the Champions League group stage.

Arsenal were let off in the Champions League last night for IDENTICAL Newcastle VAR calamity

Speaking of our old friend Arteta, it was his side that committed an almost identical "foul" to that of Tino Livramento on Tuesday. Last night, when Arsenal battered Lens by a scoreline of 6-0, Kai Havertz was fortunate to not give away a penalty as the ball hit his hand in the penalty box, much like what happened to Livramento against PSG. Low and behold, Arsenal didn't concede a penalty, for virtually the same offence.

The Mirror have pointed out that this didn't get overlooked by the Newcastle faithful who either watched the Havertz offence in real time or via the highlights. Hypocrisy has been called out about the UEFA officials, who haven't helped themselves by allowing Tomasz Kwiatkowski (the VAR for PSG vs Newcastle) to step down from his duties last night.

Tomasz Kwiatkowski has admitted his mistake but this isn't good enough. What good is recognition of mistake when it just keeps happening? I understand that referees have a difficult time but when they are stood for minutes watching replays in the modern age, there is far less threshold for mistakes.

Hopefully, Newcastle still progress in their Champions League. We have assessed our chances of progression in a recent analysis, check it out by clicking here.

What did you make of the VAR decision in PSG vs Newcastle?