Ex-Premier League referee describes VAR as 'pure rubbish' in Liverpool's win over Crystal Palace in controversial incident

Liverpool's honeymoon under Arne Slot continued to top the Premier League table, but a former referee has criticized the use of video refereeing in a controversial incident in the win over Crystal Palace.

Slot took over the coaching bench at Anfield in the summer following Jürgen Klopp's departure from Merseyside.

The Reds beat the Eagles 1-0 at Selhurst Park yesterday to move to the top of the top flight, having now won six of their first seven league games of the season.

Diogo Jota scored the decisive goal nine minutes into the game, giving Liverpool all three points.

There was a controversial moment in the encounter in the second half as game time approached when Palace ultimately failed to concede a decent penalty shot.

In that incident, Palace defender Marc Guehi appeared to be pulled back by Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk, preventing him from reaching the ball as it was crossed into the penalty area.

The incident was not picked up by referee Simon Hooper, nor was it raised by the VAR, and the virtual assistant did not intervene as no penalty was awarded.

Palace boss Oliver Glasner was sure the incident deserved a penalty, saying: “I didn't see it during the game and for me it was a clear foul.”

“VAR had to intervene but they didn’t.”

Now former referee Keith Hackett has weighed in on the debate surrounding the incident and believes Palace were in fact denied a clear penalty.

And he described the VAR's decision not to sufficiently assess the matter as “pure rubbish” to not intervene as “pathetic”.

He told the Daily Telegraph: “As Marc Guehi tries to get to the ball at the back post of the Liverpool penalty area, Virgil van Dijk blatantly pulls him back to deny him any chance. In fact, the Liverpool defender used both hands to commit the foul, as if to draw attention to the fact that he had done something illegal.

“Of course referees will miss things and so Simon Hooper is not entirely to blame, even if he made the initial mistake. But the fact that the VAR didn't intervene was, frankly, pathetic. The point of VAR is to correct mistakes.” Don't ignore them for convenience or some other unknown reason.

Hackett continued: “To make matters worse, the Premier League then confirmed that the incident had been reviewed by VAR and issued a statement arguing that the challenge was unsustainable and had no bearing on the situation “It was pure nonsense.”

“Everyone can see that it was indeed a sustained hold and that it influenced the game – even if Guehi still had some work to do to get to the ball. Making statements like this just confuses everyone when the footage clearly shows the opposite.” Officials need to focus primarily on applying the law. It should be that easy.