Why Gomez should have been sent off for tackle on Wirtz

Premier League video assistant referees continue to have a problem with red cards.

In the past two seasons 15 of the 49 VAR errors (30.61%) have related to missed or wrongly given red cards for serious foul play or violent conduct.

Brighton forward Diego Gomez should be the 16th mistake after a chest-high challenge on Liverpool's Florian Wirtz only resulted in a caution.

It came in first-half injury time of Liverpool's 2-0 victory on Saturday.

After referee Craig Pawson only showed Gomez a yellow card, VAR Darren England reviewed the challenge but ruled that it was not made with excessive force and was not serious foul play so did not upgrade it to a red card.

According to the International Football Association Board (Ifab) - football's lawmakers - 'serious foul play' is: a tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality.

Gomez made the challenge from a standing position and there did not appear to be full contact on the opponent's chest - but it is hard to see how it did not endanger the safety of an opponent.

Let's look at what happened.

Wirtz got to the ball first and it had gone before Gomez even began to make his challenge. He then raised his foot high into the chest of Wirtz.

There was no obvious reason why Gomez needed to make the tackle in this fashion, with studs leading and a straight leg.

If both players had challenged in a similar way, both with high feet, then a yellow could have been more understandable.

If the Premier League's key match incidents panel do rule this is an error it will be the second time this season Liverpool's opponents should have been reduced to 10 men on a VAR review.

In August, Bournemouth's Marcos Senesi should have been sent off when handling the ball as Hugo Ekitike was about to run through on goal.

England was also the VAR for the hugely controversial red card shown to Arsenal's Myles Lewis-Skelly at Wolves last season.

Referee Michael Oliver had sent off Lewis-Skelly for serious foul play but he had misread the nature of the tackle. England did not intervene to downgrade it to a yellow card.

Coincidentally, Arsenal and Wolves met again this weekend at the Emirates, and there was a check for a red card for a challenge by Hwang Hee-Chan on Lewis Skelly.

Crucially, although Hwang was sliding into the challenge he was pulling out of it when he crashed into the opponent. Hwang did not lead in with studs or a straight leg, which indicate increased force.

A yellow card was a fair outcome in this incident.

In Sunday's 1-1 draw at Brentford, the VAR review took three minutes and resulted in the hosts' penalty against Leeds being overturned.

Referee John Brooks pointed to the spot, ruling that Dango Ouattara was pulled back by Gabriel Gudmundsson. Eventually the penalty was cancelled as Ouattara was offside.

But did the foul come before the offside?

The Ifab law states: a player in an offside position is moving towards the ball with the intention of playing the ball and is fouled before playing or attempting to play the ball, or challenging an opponent for the ball, the foul is penalised as it has occurred before the offside offence.

We have seen this a few times in recent seasons.

Most notably in March 2019, just before VAR came into the Premier League, an offside Harry Kane was pushed over by Arsenal's Shkodran Mustafi as a ball was delivered into the area. A penalty was awarded.

In February 2024, Newcastle were given a penalty on VAR review against Bournemouth. Fabian Schar was ahead of the last defender but he hadn't committed an offside offence before he was pulled back by Adam Smith.

On Sunday, Ouattara was running towards the flight of the ball. Like Kane, you can make a case that he did not do anything to make him actively offside prior to the foul.

However, fans struggle to get on board with these situations where an offside player effectively benefits from being in that position.

It is why there was controversy over Arsenal's first goal against Wolves. That came from a corner which was awarded despite Bukayo Saka being offside.

When Toti Gomes headed the ball behind, Saka had not committed any kind of offside offence. The Arsenal player was running forwards but did not challenge Gomes or try to play the ball.

Yet Wolves would argue that Toti only attempted the header because Saka was behind him.

Gudmundsson's challenge was incredibly soft, however, and it should have led to a VAR review to be overturned if Ouattara was onside. But the evidence suggests this would not have happened.

Usually, the VAR will check the subjective element, in this case the foul. If there is to be a review the referee would be sent to the screen. While he is running over the VAR checks for any offside.

As the referee was not told to go to the monitor it indicates the foul had been cleared by the VAR, Michael Salisbury.

Leeds were denied their own penalty claim at the start of the second half when Nathan Collins tugged back Dominic Calvert-Lewin. It was a much clearer claim than the foul given against Gudmundsson.

There was probably not quite enough in it for a VAR penalty, but it certainly would not have been overturned had it been given.