The Premier League’s own Key Match Incidents panel has put fresh VAR scrutiny on the title race. It backed decisions that favoured Arsenal, and it also said Manchester City should have had a penalty in the 3-3 draw with Everton. That leaves the gap between the top two looking a little less clean than the table itself.
What the panel said about Everton
The clearest flashpoint came late on at Goodison Park. Bernardo Silva held Merlin Röhl at the 85-minute corner when Everton were 3-2 up, and the panel’s view was blunt: there was a clear, sustained holding offence which continued as the corner was taken and the ball came into play. On the day, VAR gave no penalty. Afterwards, the panel said that was wrong.
David Moyes was even more forceful, saying: "If that doesn't get given as a penalty, then it's an absolute free-for-all from now on". It is easy to see why City felt aggrieved. The match still finished 3-3, but the non-call now sits inside a title race argument rather than just a single night at Everton.
Why Arsenal are being pulled into the same debate
The other side of the file is Arsenal. The panel backed a view that William Saliba carelessly kicked Barry in a challenge at Everton, with the wording that it was a late challenge where Saliba carelessly kicks Barry with no contact on the ball. That is the sort of call that sticks because it sits directly inside a title race where Arsenal have 79 points from 36 matches and City have 77.
The panel has also recorded 23 VAR errors this season, and Arsenal were said to have benefited from VAR errors to the tune of four points. That figure should be handled carefully, because the match-by-match arithmetic is not independently verified here. The broader point is still hard to miss: the officials’ review has put Arsenal on the right side of one set of incidents and City on the wrong side of another.
Bukayo Saka does not enter this file through a decisive goal or assist. He enters it through the scoreboard margin that those calls helped preserve. Jérémy Doku put it more neatly after City’s draw, saying, "One point is better than nothing". In a title race this tight, even a point feels like something that might have been another two.
The league table still says Arsenal are top and City are two points behind after 36 games. What this review changes is the argument around how narrow that cushion really is.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 2 outlets. How we work →
