By IAN LADYMAN, FOOTBALL EDITOR
Published: 07:00 EST, 9 February 2026 | Updated: 07:10 EST, 9 February 2026
Welcome to the world of the Video Assistant Referee. Where even when you do your job and correct a mistake you are painted as the villain. Where emotion and adrenaline cloud the judgment of so many of those watching and where a thirst for a preferred outcome turns the sane into madmen and pushes the previously unhinged over the edge and into the abyss.
To keep it short, the third Manchester City 'goal' at Anfield simply could not have been allowed to stand. Well, it could have been but the VAR officials would have had to wilfully and deliberately ignore the laws of football.
And while they may often give the impression of regularly doing just that, on this occasion they saw the situation exactly for what it was and reached the only outcome possible.
On the field, referee Craig Pawson was within his rights to play on once Erling Haaland freed himself from the shirt pull of Dominik Szobozslai. There was a goal to be scored.
But once Haaland returned the favour in order to get himself back in front of his opponent, play should have been stopped. One advantage doesn't give a referee the right to then ignore a clear subsequent foul.
One Erling Haaland fouled to get himself back in front of his opponent, play had to be stopped
I have heard and read endless vacuous arguments from the fantasists and flat-earthers playing gleefully to their galleries. Much of that comes from previous and draining frustrations with VAR and I share much of those. I never wanted it and I wish to this day that we didn't have it.
But we do have it and are therefore obliged to use it in instances just like this. Just because we are bored of a system that on the whole doesn't work well enough doesn't mean we can ask it to ignore the laws of the game and get angry about it in the moments when it does.
On X, the formerly relevant radio presenter Danny Baker was aggressive about the whole thing. And yes I remember the days when he was funny too.
'Imagine being so disconnected from the vitality of what football is that you watch that "goal' and then arrive at this conclusion," he raged about yours truly.
'These people are like AI football fans.
'Or like pub bores who will tell you the route you've driven to somewhere was actually the wrong way.'
If only he had seen the traffic jam on the M62 on the way home from Anfield. That was something to get really angry about.
Time to turn off the mics
It would have been nice to hear what referee Pawson was actually saying when he addressed the crowd after the VAR check.
But a combination of the referee's apparent breathlessness (well it had all been very exciting) and a crummy PA connection combined to make it sound like he was trying to call home from the moon on an old Nokia while going for a jog at the same time.
This is one PGMOL experiment that has run its course. Just give the decision and get on with it.
Craig Pawson addressed the crowd after his VAR check - but largely couldn't be heard
Slot's numbers place him in danger
Liverpool manager Arne Slot had his own frustrations with the referee after his side's dramatic defeat but was in danger of veering in to Rodri territory when he suggested his team would not have been given the decisive penalty.
'I would have asked for a penalty,' Slot said.
'Would I get it? I am not so sure.'
Slot then referenced other decisions in the game – such as the shirt pull from Marc Guehi on Mo Salah – and incidents that he believes affected the outcome when City beat Liverpool at the Etihad back in November. All of which lends weight to the view that just about every manager in the Premier League believes the refereeing world to be against them.
What should concern Slot more are the statistics that continue to pile up against him. His team have actually played better football in the last two weeks and there was a time yesterday in the second half when Liverpool threatened to blow the City house down. It is not time to give up on the Liverpool manager yet.
But when you consider that Liverpool have two fewer points than Manchester United had after 25 games in the season they sacked David Moyes twelve years ago, it puts Slot's current travails into stark context. It's just as well he has last season's Premier League title to back him up.
Foden falling behind in the World Cup queue
Interesting that Pep Guardiola made only attacking changes as he sought to change the flow of the game at Anfield.
The City manager sent on Rayan Cherki for Omar Marmoush on the hour with the score at 0-0 but didn't do anything of note once Liverpool took the lead 15 minutes later.
That meant absolutely no game time for Phil Foden who hasn't started a Premier League game since his dismal showing in the defeat at Manchester United four games ago.
With a World Cup looming, it's a bad time not to be playing and Foden is currently behind Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer in Thomas Tuchel's pecking order for the 'No 10' position.
Jude Bellingham, the other contender, is currently injured.
Phil Foden hasn't started a Premier League game since his dismal Man United showing
Garnacho has a new problem
Meanwhile we wonder where Alejandro Garnacho fits into what Liam Rosenior is trying to build at Chelsea.
The Argentine winger needed a change from life at United where he was liked and admired but prone to bouts of petulance that would test a manager's patience.
At Chelsea, it's Garnacho's football that is currently the problem and some Blues fans have already made their mind up.
If it doesn't work at Stamford Bridge then it's hard to see a talented but erratic 21-year-old being offered another chance in the Premier League.
A VAR call to really get mad about
Manchester United's own revival under Michael Carrick continues apace and what continues to improve is the rate at which his team continue to create chances.
United have much to prove with their recruitment and face another big summer but the attacking options they took in the summer were the right ones and watching Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha combine with Bruno Fernandes – now playing in his more natural advanced – position is extremely easy on the eye.
They were helped in their task of beating Spurs on Saturday lunchtime by the dismissal of Spurs captain Cristian Romero who had to go after his dismal challenge on United's rejuvenated midfielder Casemiro.
But what about the challenge by Sunderland's Bryan Brobbey on Martin Zubimendi during his team's defeat at Arsenal? Only a yellow was issued and the decision was checked and cleared by VAR who deemed it a natural movement.
It was no such thing. Brobbey was nowhere near the ball and should have walked. This is the kind of inconsistency that Danny Baker and his pals should be getting wound up against.
Sunderland's Bryan Brobbey on Martin Zubimendi was a challenge nowhere near the ball
West Ham following Nuno's brave lead
Carrick and his team will be in East London tomorrow night to face his old club West Ham, who are being dragged upwards by the coaching and courage of their manager Nuno Espirito Santo and a belated contribution from some of last summer's signings.
Nuno was brave enough to change his goalkeeper for Saturday's trip to Burnley and it paid off.
Mads Hermansen – bought by Graham Potter from Leicester last summer – had not played in the league since being dropped in September but was brought back in at Turf Moor and he played his part as West Ham repelled some aerial warfare from Burnley in the second half.
Meanwhile the goals of another arrival Crysencio Summerville continue to catch the eye – that's five in five now – but so do the performances of central midfielder Mateus Fernandes.
West Ham paid £38m to relegated Southampton for the 21-year-old which seemed top heavy. But if the Portuguese helps to keep the club up, it will have been worth every penny.
Are Forest's woes Edu's fault?
West Ham's recruitment may finally be paying off but it's harder to say the same for Nuno's former club Nottingham Forest.
Watching Forest lose relatively meekly at Leeds on Friday night, it was hard not to notice how unrecognisable they look in every sense from the team that reached the FA Cup semi-finals and briefly threatened the Champions League places last season.
Indeed a look at the contributions made by Forest's raft of incomings tells a sorry story.
In the region of £150m was spent on the likes of Omar Hutchinson, Dan Ndoye, Dilane Bakwa, Arnaud Kalimuendo and James McAtee ahead of this season but only wide player Ndoye has made more than ten league starts.
At the cheaper end of the scale only forward Igor Jesus has made any kind of impact at all and he was the only one of the list to start at Elland Road. Meanwhile one loan signing, Douglas Luiz, has ended up back at Aston Villa and another, Oleksandr Zinchenko, is now playing for Ajax.
Fans may with good reason ask what good has come of their club since the arrival of global head of football Edu last July. More broadly, it feels as though Forest will find themselves set in this constant cycle of boom and bust while their ambitious but erratic owner Evangelos Marinakis is in charge.
Forest will almost certainly get a windfall from the sale of Elliot Anderson this summer but how on earth will they spend it?
Nottingham Forest fans have good reason ask what good since hiring Edu
Sorry Owls close in on a record
Down in the Championship Sheffield Wednesday lost 4-0 at Swansea on Sunday and the great Yorkshire club are in danger of setting an unwanted record as their woes continue.
Still without an owner, Wednesday could become the first club in English football to be relegated with negative points after their 18-point sanction for EFL rules breaches. They currently sit bottom on minus seven.
By and large the Owls have battled bravely on the field but their resistance is waning and they are yet to actually score a goal since Boxing Day, when they drew 2-2 at home to Hull.
That's a run of ten games, the last nine of which have been lost. Wednesday have not actually won a game since September 20 but continue to pack out away ends up and down the country.
Many fans continue to follow the lost cause to ensure they have enough credits to ensure tickets for next season when things may just feel a little brighter.
Time for Aluko to listen and not talk
Finally, well done to Laura Woods for her takedown of the endlessly bleating Eni Aluko.
Aluko, once a decent footballer, has been moaning about her lack of TV opportunities once again. (Spoiler alert: She's rubbish at it).
Laura Woods' takedown of the endlessly bleating Eni Aluko offered welcome perspective
And Woods – one of the best in her field - offered some welcome perspective this morning in response to Aluko's whine that too many men are given TV gigs on women's football.
Writing on X she said: 'Caps don't win automatic work and they don't make a brilliant pundit either. The way you communicate, articulate yourself, do your research, inform your audience, how likeable you are and the chemistry you have with your panel are what makes a brilliant pundit.
'If you want to grow something, you don't gate keep it. We want to encourage little boys and men to watch women's football too, not just little girls and women. And when they see someone like Ian Wright taking it as seriously as he does - they follow suit. That's how you grow a sport.'
Bravo and let that be an end to this nonsense.