There was something depressingly inevitable about the Premier League title race being shaped by another baffling VAR intervention.
West Ham thought they had earned a huge point against Arsenal on Sunday when Callum Wilson bundled home late on at the London Stadium, sparking wild celebrations among home fans and sending a ripple of panic through north London.
But after the now customary two-minute forensic examination by Stockley Park, the goal was chalked off for what officials deemed a foul in the build-up.
Replays showed the sort of physical contact that has existed in football since the game was invented. There was no clear and obvious error. There was no scandalous act of violence.
VAR's intervention has likely decided the Premier League title - a sad state of affairs in today's football
|REUTERS
It was simply football. Messy, chaotic, emotional football. Yet once again VAR stepped in to sanitise the game down to the finest technical detail.
The consequence could be enormous. Arsenal now look destined to edge Manchester City to the Premier League title, with West Ham denied a point that many neutrals felt they deserved.
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A season potentially decided not by brilliance on the pitch, but by another laboratory-style dissection from officials staring at freeze frames in a dark room.
And perhaps that is fitting for the wider state of modern football.
The Premier League has become obsessed with control. Every goal is checked. Every tackle is scrutinised. Every coming together between players is slowed down frame by frame until contact that looked completely harmless in real time suddenly appears criminal.
The spontaneity that made football the most popular sport in the world is being strangled by endless interference.
VAR has had such a huge impact on the way football is played nowadays - and not in a good way
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Fans no longer celebrate goals properly because they are terrified of the inevitable VAR check.
Players stand around awkwardly waiting for verdicts like contestants on a gameshow.
Managers spend more time discussing interpretations and protocols than tactics.
Worse still, this hyper-controlled environment has infected the football itself.
So many Premier League matches this season have been painfully sterile. Teams are coached within an inch of their lives, terrified of making mistakes because every misplaced hand or mistimed challenge can be punished after three minutes of video analysis.
Risk-taking has diminished. Chaos has disappeared. Individual flair is coached out in favour of systems and structure.
Football used to thrive on emotion and unpredictability. Now it often feels like an administrative exercise governed by legalistic technicalities.
"Even the referees don't know what is or what is not a foul" ❌
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) May 10, 2026
West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo says other circumstances have been judged differently in the past 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/lpL4kwSSjc
VAR can be useful to overrule silly decisions but we don't need everything over-analysed
|REUTERS
Of course technology can help referees avoid obvious howlers. Nobody wants goals given when a striker is five yards offside. But VAR was sold as a tool to correct clear mistakes, not as a mechanism to re-referee every microscopic detail of a football match.
West Ham supporters left the London Stadium furious. Neutrals were left confused. Arsenal fans, even while delighted with the result, could hardly claim the moment felt satisfying.
That is the real problem with VAR. Even when it gets decisions “right”, football somehow feels worse.