Premier League issue statement after 'GARBAGE' Marc Guehi VAR decision

Liverpool’s win over Crystal Palace was a tetchy, tumultuous affair, clearly impacted by the cycle of Wednesday-early Saturday starts.

Head coach Arne Slot rotated what he felt he could, Kostas Tsimikas and Curtis Jones in for Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai, respectively. And whilst Liverpool were 1-0 up inside 10 minutes, it was not a sign of things to come.

Crystal Palace grew back into the game in the second half. The introduction of Jean-Philippe Mateta up front allowed them to cement a more physical presence and attack the box.

Read more: Liverpool have another INCREDIBLE goalkeeper ready to replace Alisson Becker

One controversial moment came when Virgil van Dijk and the Liverpool-linked centre-back Marc Guehi got into a tangle, with van Dijk appearing to grab Guehi’s arm and send him spinning to the floor as the ball came into the box.

No penalty was given at the time and VAR didn’t change this - much to Guehi’s chagrin - and the Premier League have since issued a statement. 

‘The referee’s call of no penalty for the challenge by Van Dijk on Guehi is checked and confirmed by VAR - deeming the the challenge was not sustained holding and had no impact on the play.’

The statement is clear whilst being confusing. ‘Sustained holding’ seems to be a ill-defined, subjective term. And whilst Guehi might not have got to the ball on this specific occasion, off-the-ball incidents are fouls too.

Marc Guehi 'held' by Virgil van Dijk in VAR call

The decision to not award the penalty, meanwhile, has been severely criticised by former referee Keith Hackett.

"For the VAR to not intervene was frankly pathetic," writes Hackett in The Telegraph. "The whole point of VAR is to correct mistakes, not ignore them for sake of convenience or some other unknown reason.

"Was it a clear hold? Yes. Did it interfere with play? Yes. Was it clear and obvious? Yes.

"For all of the above reasons, it is absolute nonsense for the penalty not to be awarded and Palace should feel aggrieved.

"To make things worse, the Premier League then confirmed the incident had been reviewed by VAR and put out a statement, arguing “that the challenge was not sustained holding and had no impact on the play”.

"Pure garbage. Everyone can see it was, in fact, sustained holding and it did impact play – even if Guehi still had some work to do to reach the ball."

There are, as ever, two sides to this. It is the type of incident where you feel aggrieved if your team don’t get it but would feel aggrieved if it was given against you. 

As a result, deferring to the referee’s decision is probably the best course of action.