VAR played a part in Crystal Palace avoiding an even worse result against Fulham on Saturday.
Both Emile Smith Rowe and Harry Wilson saw goals disallowed for an offside and handball respectively, sparing the Eagles from a truly embarrassing result in the Premier League clash at Selhurst Park.
Regardless of whether it was 2-0 or 4-0, Oliver Glasner will not have been pleased by any means from what he witnessed from his players, with the defeat leaving Crystal Palace 17th in the Premier League, and potentially in the bottom three if Ipswich beat Tottenham on Sunday.However, while the scoreline read 1-0 to Fulham, there was a key moment VAR missed, which, had it been spotted, could have set us up for a late fightback with the Cottagers only one ahead.
Michael Salisbury and VAR both missed Joachim Andersen clattering Jeffrey Schlupp
Just before Wilson sealed all three points for Fulham in the 83rd minute, Joachim Andersen sent Jeffrey Schlupp flying with a late challenge, after the Crystal Palace No.15 had got his toe to the ball ahead of the Dane.
Salisbury, who made several sloppy errors, such as a number of wrongly awarded throw-ins to the west Londoners, opted to let play go on, which Fulham took full advantage of.
However, VAR then failed to check the incident and bring play back to that moment, where Crystal Palace ought to have been retrospectively awarded a freekick.
Unfortunately, those over at Stockley Park decided to back Salisbury – for some bizarre reason – effectively ending any chance we had of mounting a late comeback.
No excuses for Crystal Palace
While it would have been nice for VAR to spot this moment and give us a proper chance of salvaging a point, we cannot solely blame the technology for letting us down.
Of course, Glasner was forced to deal with a number of injury problems in the absence of Eberechi Eze, Adam Wharton, Jefferson Lerma and Eddie Nketiah, but the level of performance was nowhere near good enough from anybody.It speaks volumes that Justin Devenny – who impressed Crystal Palace fans on his Premier League debut – showed more fight than any of the senior figures on the pitch.
Hopefully, Glasner can sort this worrying situation out during the international break, as the 2024/25 campaign is starting to become a genuinely miserable season.
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