Former Premier League referee Mike Dean branded Andreas Pereira's tackle on Ryan Gravenberch "100 per cent a red card" during the first half of Liverpool's match against Fulham.
However, officials at the VAR centre in Stockley Park reviewed the incident and agreed with on-field referee Tony Harrington's decision to only issue Pereira a yellow card.
The incident occurred when Gravenberch went down under a challenge from Pereira, with the midfielder shown to have raked his studs down the Achilles of the Reds star within the first 10 minutes.
Despite Dean's criticism, the Premier League chose not to publicly explain the reasoning behind the decision.
The Liverpool Echo sought clarification from the Premier League, and it is understood that the VAR supported Harrington's initial ruling, allowing Pereira to continue playing and eventually score the opening goal at Anfield just minutes later.
Dean expressed his disagreement with the officials' judgement, stating on Sky Sports News: "I think judging by what we saw in the week in the programme that Howard (Webb) did (Mic'd up).
"It's the same challenge as Wilfried Ndidi on the back of Cole Palmer. He's caught him just above the achilles with his studs and and scraped down to the top of the boot.
"In my opinion he's nowhere near the ball, he knows what he's doing and it's 100 per cent a red card."
Cody Gakpo struck back in the latter half to cancel out Pereira's goal for the Reds, who found themselves down to 10 when Andy Robertson got his marching orders for stonewalling Harry Wilson’s scoring chance.
Rodrigo Muniz restored Fulham's lead late on before substitute Diogo Jota secured a valuable point for the league leaders.