#var

#var

With the Republic of Ireland defending their box, a coming together between Republic of Ireland's Dara O'Shea and Ronaldo, left the Ireland defender on the floor. Ronaldo made a crying gesture and signaled it was a dive, but Swedish referee Nyberg awarded a free kick against him and produced a yellow card for adopting an aggressive attitude.

There were many interesting talking points from the dramatic stalemate between Arsenal and Chelsea Alyssa Thompson's stunning goal for the Blues, the impressive defensive performance of Lotte Wubben-Moy, the 56,537-strong crowd, Chelsea's choice of a back four over a back five, Arsenal's decision not to play with a natural No 6 but, disappointingly, it is the quality of the officiating that has and will dominate.

In the end, we were not talking about the football, players, or implications on the title race, as Arsenal vs. Chelsea ended in a 1-1 draw on Saturday afternoon. Despite it being arguably the biggest clash of the Women's Super League (WSL) season, between two of the top teams (the reigning domestic champions and reigning European champions), we were instead left talking about some dreadful officiating decisions that completely overshadowed what should have been a massive high-stakes clash.

No, not at all, far off. No one can get close to them, so no, the 25-year-old said. This season Haaland has already scored 26 times in 16 appearances in all competitions, registering 13 Premier League strikes, four in the Champions League, and nine for Norway. City could play a maximum of 52 more games this term, while Norway could have 12 more matches if they reach the World Cup final plus a yet to be decided number of friendlies.

From tracking player movement with eerie precision to whispering tactical tweaks into analysts' ears, artificial intelligence is now as common at training grounds as bibs and banter. Clubs crunch mountains of data to predict fatigue, refine pressing triggers, even scout teenagers before they've finished growing. VAR, of course, remains the clumsy cousin still learning when clear and obvious' actually means clear and obvious. But love it or loathe it, AI isn't leaving the pitch anytime soon.

Okay, stop me the moment when Lamine, with his foot... okay, there's no tackle there. It's Vini who hits him with his foot from behind. Lamine doesn't make the tackle on player number 7, Vinicius, from Real Madrid. So I'm going to give a neutral bounce there. I'm going to whistle the foul because it's Vinicius who hits Lamine Yamal.

After good hold-up play from Brian Brobbey, he laid the ball off for Talbi to fire home Sunderland's winner in the 93rd minute, which sparked wild scenes from the away supporters. However, there have been claims made that these celebrations would have been short-lived, as the legitimacy of the goal has been questioned.

Running on to a dangerous low cross in the 71st minute when Brentford were leading 2-1, Mbeumo was tugged back by Collins in the box. Referee Craig Pawson awarded Manchester United a penalty and showed Collins a yellow card - a decision which was checked and confirmed by the video assistant referee (VAR).

Referees could be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) one day, reckons Livingston manager David Martindale. Semi-automated offside technology has been around since the 2022 World Cup and Martindale is predicting further advances to reduce human error. The Scottish Premiership is nearing three years of video assistant referees (VAR) but does not yet have goal-line or offside technology, with the cost proving prohibitive.

For me, it was a yellow card. [Eder] Militao was close. The ball wasn't under control. There were still 40 metres to go. It's my interpretation, the referee had another, and the VAR had another. I asked for an explanation and it didn't convince me much, but let's leave it there ... Winning at Anoeta is always very difficult, and today it was even more difficult.

"It wasn't controversial, it was wrong," Webb said on the Premier League's VAR show, Match Officials Mic'd Up. "We've established some principles in terms of how we officiate in the Premier League and how we use VAR. They sit around a high threshold for penalising contact -- it aids the flow and rhythm and tempo of the game."

Perhaps the biggest insult for Fulham was that the first half was still going on when Chelsea finally broke through. They were into the ninth minute of added time when Enzo Fernandez delivered a corner, Joao Pedro leapt to score and Marco Silva was forced to accept that the footballing Gods were not on his side, but this is where the game is these days.