Thread by @DaleJohnsonESPN

It's Monday VAR thread time, with only a few (high profile) things to mention:

- Southampton's "penalty" for handball
- Massively reduced interventions
- The offside equaliser
- Bruno Fernandes' challenge

Starting with the Southampton pen, it seems that the VAR, Mike Dean, has become tangled with the absolute letter of the law.

There are similarities with the Rodri decision for Man City, which went against Villa.

Neither decision was "what football expects."

"What football expects" is a key mantra of the VAR project.

While obviously the game must be officiated to the Laws of the Game, there are situations that are simply what they seem.

Rodri was offside.
Matty Cash gave away a penalty.

No one would have argued with either.

Mike Dean will point to the (albeit slight) deflection off the thigh onto the arm to justify not giving Southampton a pen. That line exists in law.

However, PL has said that incidents such as Koch of Leeds at Liverpool (deflection onto the outstretched arm) remain a penalty.

Matty Cash survived because his arm closer to the body. But he leans into the path ball with a straight arm. It's a deliberate movement.

Compare to Southampton v Liverpool. It's a natural position to block a shot. Arm in an expected position for the player's movement.

But something has changed.

Through to Dec. 26 there were 67 VAR interventions in 134 games. That's a frequency of 0.50 - one every other game (huge), or 5 a weekend.

Since then, only 7 interventions in 62 games. A frequency of 0.11 - one in 10 games, or 1 a weekend.

The Bundesliga season frequency for VAR is 0.23 (1 in 4 games), compared to the Premier League's 0.36 (1 in 3 games).

But the Bundesliga has had a consistent application across the season, while in the PL we've lurched from regular intervention to barely a touch.

What does that tell us? Premier League officials are still wresting madly to find the sweet spot for "clear and obvious," the point at which VAR should intervene.

VAR was way too fussy in the first part of the season, now we're back to the high bar being way up.

On Southampton's offside equaliser, let's be clear here:

- VAR did not disallow the goal, it was checking to see if it should be allowed
- Still disallowed under Dutch margin of error (assistant flagged)

The process and its flaws fully explained here:

https://twitter.com/DaleJohnsonESPN/status/1318143868462911490?s=20

PL shouldn't have ditched plans to stop showing the calculation process. It's stupid. No one has a clue what's going on, it's helps nobody and social media accounts - including rights holders - share incomplete, confusing and misleading images.

No surprise only the PL does it.

I know what's happening here because I have learned each step of the process in the course of my job. I'm probably one of a handful of people outside Stockley Park that does.

So why show this clash of pink, black and yellow lines? It can ONLY cause more unrest among fans.

To cover a few points from over the weekend.

1. No, strikers won't be able to roll their sleeves up to be onside. The offside point isn't the sleeve. It's (brace yourselves) an imaginary point on the arm. Which obviously can only bring inconsistencies (blame IFAB).

2. The offside law is not changing to Wenger's "daylight" law. Right now, there are no plans to change offside. It remains a key discussion point at the IFAB but any law change is years away.

3. Offside is exactly the same in all other top leagues. Here's one from Ligue 1.

Finally, on Bruno Fernandes against Arsenal. It's certainly naughty from Fernandes but it's more reckless (no force and intensity).

VAR cannot issue a yellow, even if he feels it should be a yellow.

As I've said before, similar challenges happen every weekend without a red.