There is something almost poetic about Jamie Carragher wading into an Arsenal VAR controversy and immediately making half the internet lose their minds. Classic Carra. Never one to quietly sit on the fence when he can instead sprint directly through it at full speed.
The call itself, Myles Lewis-Skelly bundling into the West Ham player before the ball went in, was honestly one of those ones where you could watch it back ten times and still not be completely sure. Which, when you think about it, is basically the entire VAR experience summarised in one sentence. The technology was supposed to give us clarity and instead gave us a nation of armchair referees all absolutely certain they are right and everyone else is an idiot.
But here is the thing, Carragher is not entirely wrong. The amount of people suddenly becoming deeply passionate about the correct application of handball and obstruction laws who have never once cared before is suspicious at best. If that exact same situation happened against Manchester City in 2023 the discourse would have been completely different and everyone knows it. Football Twitter has the memory of a goldfish and the bias of a drunk uncle at Christmas.
Arsenal fans will say the rules are the rules and the ref made a call. West Ham fans are furious. Neutrals are doing their annual ritual of pretending they are neutral while clearly not being neutral at all. The cycle continues.
What does matter is that Arsenal needed that result badly. They are right in this title race and every point feels enormous right now. Whether the decision was right or wrong, they grabbed three points and kept themselves in touching distance at the top. Credit where it is due, Arteta has built something genuinely impressive at that club and they deserve to be where they are.
The bigger conversation is always the same one though. VAR was supposed to fix football and instead it just moved the arguments from the pub to a video screen. Brilliant. Well done everyone involved.
Let me know your thoughts.