Why Arsenal's controversial opener against Wolves was not ruled out as PGMOL verdict given

Arsenal secured a crucial victory over Wolves in the Premier League on Saturday night courtesy of a last-gasp winner

VAR was right not to intervene to rule out Arsenal' s opening goal against Wolves on Saturday night for offside, according to Match of the Day's Danny Murphy and Mark Chapman.

Mikel Arteta 's side earned a crucial victory at home against the Premier League 's bottom-placed side, ensuring they maintained their lead over Manchester City in the title race. Despite a relatively sub-par performance in front of goal, the game sparked into life late in the second half when Bukayo Saka 's corner was turned into the net by Wolves goalkeeper Sam Johnstone.

It wasn't entirely smooth sailing from there for the Gunners, however, as Tolu Arokodare headed in an equaliser as the game ticked over into added time. For a few minutes, it appeared Arsenal were heading towards a disappointing draw, but substitute Gabriel Jesus found a crucial winner deep into stoppage time, although it officially went down as another own goal, this time off Wolves defender Yerson Mosquera.

There was some controversy in the build-up to Arsenal's opening goal, with many pointing out that Saka appeared to be marginally offside in the lead-up to the corner that ultimately resulted in the goal. Replays of the phase of play showed the winger was slightly ahead of the defender when a long pass was played forward to him, before it was headed behind by Toti Gomes.

Although it could be argued that Gomes was affected by Saka's presence, which eventually led to a corner, the Match of the Day panel were all in agreement that VAR should not have stepped in to rule it out. They also cited the reasoning from the PGMOL as to why that was the case.

"You can tell he’s in an offside position from the first look," Murphy explained. "Most of us watching it think ‘ooo he could be offside’.

"When it’s cleared out for a corner, it’s not offside. It’s actually not his [Saka’s] best ball in the world, the keeper should deal with it but he doesn’t."

Chapman then referenced the official rules from the PGMOL, adding: "Because Saka didn’t affect the opponent’s line of vision, he didn’t challenge the opponent for the ball. Nor did he attempt to play the ball, he just dropped off.

"He didn’t do anything to impact the opponent’s ability to play the ball. If you look at it in black and white, that’s why it wasn’t given offside."

Arsenal have now extended their lead over second-placed Manchester City to five points, with Pep Guardiola's side set to face Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon in a bid to reduce the deficit back to two points. Arsenal, meanwhile, have a full week to prepare for the trip to face Everton at the Hill Dickinson Stadium next Saturday.