Kai Havertz and Mikel Merino of Arsenal confront Referee Anthony Taylor (Picture: Getty)
VAR officials did not have the Fantasy Premier League app on display during Arsenal’s clash with Liverpool despite online speculation.
In a back-and-forth encounter at the Emirates, Mohamad Salah’s late goal ensured that the spoils were shared with a 2-2 draw between the two title contenders.
Arsenal had led the encounter twice courtesy of goals from the returning Bukayo Saka and summer signing Mikel Merino but the Gunners were twice pegged back, first by Virgil van Dijk and then by Salah either side of half-time.
Despite a largely incident-free encounter in north London, Premier League fans did raise their eyebrows at one point following Merino’s first-half header.
As VAR sought to check whether the Spaniard had strayed offside before Declan Rice’s cross, users on social media began to suspect that one official had the Fantasy Premier League app open on his phone.
‘The VAR team actually have FPL up on their phone, you cannot make this up man,’ one joked on X.
‘No wonder he gave Arsenal the goal,’ another responded.
Social media users thought the VAR official’s device was displaying the FPL website (Picture: X)
However, despite online speculation, it has now been confirmed by ESPN journalist Dale Johnson that the app on display was the Premier League Match Manager app rather than anything to do with Fantasy Football.
Furthermore, no personal devices, such as mobile phones, are allowed in the VAR hub during a Premier League encounter.
Still, not everyone was pleased with the officials at full-time, with Liverpool boss Arne Slot claiming he was mistakenly yellow-carded when the fourth official, Sam Barrott, misheard his complaint to Ibrahima Konate about Arsenal slowing the game down in the second half.
‘Last time I said I completely deserved the yellow card, this time I don’t think I did it,’ Slot said.
‘Because after so many times they were on the floor, which can happen in football I don’t blame them for that, but they always fell down after they had ball possession.
‘That took the energy out of the game in my opinion, and I said to Ibou [Konate], ‘this is a f***ing joke’ and the fourth official thought that I said to him, ‘you are a f***ing joke’, that’s definitely not that I said.
‘But I got a yellow for that, so now I’m on two and I have to be careful now.’
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