Thread by @DaleJohnsonESPN

Not too much to discuss in this week's Monday VAR thread, well until yesterday...

- Harvey Elliot challenge, Patrick Struijk red card
- Liverpool's second goal at Leeds
- Arsenal's winner at Norwich
- Crystal Palace penalty vs. Spurs

Let's start at Elland Road by covering the process behind the red card for Patrick Struijk.

Craig Pawson didn't actually give a free-kick for the challenge when it happened, so the red card came afterwards.

Many ask how he can give a red if he hasn't given a foul.

Once play was stopped for Harvey Elliot to get treatment, referee Pawson spoke to his on-field team, including Andy Madley who was 4th official and was close to the incident.

It was Pawson's decision, in conjunction with his officiating team, to show the red card.

That Pawson didn't give a foul is largely irrelevant, because ultimately the referee can always take the advice of his team before issuing a sanction - even if he hasn't given a foul himself initially.

Obviously, the process is better if the referee has given the foul.

VAR had no role in the red card, other than to ask the referee what the on-field decision was going to be.

Once Pawson told them it was going to be a red card, VAR completed a quick check and saw no cause to review that decision as an error.

The red card was given for serious foul play - specifically the intensity of the challenge and endangering the safety of an opponent.

Did the injury influence the officials? You can't really say otherwise considering the timeline of the sanction, and no free-kick was given.

You see this kind of tackle regularly, when a player attempts to hook the ball back.

But Struijk appears to jump in to make this tackle, meaning he has to be out of control to an extent, and it's his trailing leg that causes the injury.

No one would say that Struijk tried to cause the injury, but the nature of the tackle did lead to it.

This kind of tackle, especially from behind, is why intent was taken out of the Laws.

The intensity of a tackle, and if it endangers the safety of an opponent is paramount.

There's been comparisons to the red card shown to Son Heung-Min at Everton in November 2019, because it was overturned on appeal.

However, the two incidents are different. With Son, Andre Gomes' injury was actually caused when he then collided with another Spurs player.

With the Struijk red card, the injury to Elliot is directly caused by the force and intensity of the Leeds player's challenge.

Even with the Son appeal, the FA's Independent Regulatory Commission failed to reach a unanimous verdict, voting two to one to overturn.

Liam Cooper made a fairly similar challenge shortly afterwards, but there simply wasn't the same intensity in the challenge.

Cooper didn't jump into the tackle in the same way, it's more controlled and therefore doesn't endanger the safety of his opponent.

Onto the other decisions. Liverpool were lucky that the second goal wasn't disallowed for offside.

Swap Raphinha and Illan Meslier and I'm certain it's chalked off.

Mane is in an offside position, so the question is whether he impacts Raphinha.

Mane is certainly in Raphinha's line of vision.

And Mane's movement to the left influences Raphinha - who would surely have stopped the ball had he not moved left with the Liverpool forward.

Again, if Raphinha is Meslier I'm sure it's disallowed.

As this element of the offside law is subjective, the VAR decided that it was not a clear and obvious error to allow the goal.

Worth nothing that the decision earlier this season, to disallow Norwich's goal for the same reason, was also made on field and not through VAR.

It's a good example of where there will be perceived inconsistencies.

The VAR won't try to make every single decision the same in every game, the consistency should actually come from *when* to intervene.

In both these instances, the field decision stood.

Also on offside, and Arsenal's winner against Norwich.

This was about as lucky as you get for Arsenal, both in terms of the ball falling to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and how it got to him too.

If the ball doesn't come off Nicolas Pepe again, Aubameyang is offside.

At this point from Pepe's shot, Aubameyang is clearly in an offside position.

If the ball goes to Aubameyang via the post or the goalkeeper, or hitting the backside of the defender, he is offside and the goal is disallowed, but it didn't.

The ball comes back off the post, and inadvertently hits Pepe's leg. This resets the offside phase.

By this point Aubemeyang is behind the ball, and therefore cannot be offside. So when the ball drops to him it's going to be a goal.

The other question was handball in the build-up.

As attacking handball now only concerns the scorer, the handball by Bukayo Saka would have to be deliberate for the goal to be disallowed.

The handball happened accidentally at close proximity, so VAR wouldn't overturn this.

Finally this week, the penalty awarded to Tottenham for handball by Ben Davies.

It was a very simply decision for Jon Moss. Davies' arm comes out and creates a barrier, blocking the cross from Conor Gallagher.

It's similar to this penalty which WASN'T given to Italy at Euro 2020, for handball by Turkey's Zeki Celik.

However, in his post-tournament review UEFA refs' chief Roberto Rosetti said this kind of handball offence should be penalised as a penalty even if it's unintentional.

Adding a few tweets on the two tackles in last night's Everton vs. Burnley game.

First, the Josh Brownhill challenge on Richarlison in the 2nd minute.

Obviously there are clear similarities with Pascal Struijk's challenge on Harvey Elliot.

30 secs

The key consideration will be Bronwhill doesn't leave the ground with both feet - his left foot is always grounded and this is considered to give some control in the challenge.

With Pascal Struijk he left the ground completely and made the tackle with a jumping action.

Bronwhill should have been booked, but VAR is unlikely to see this a red card without leaving the ground.

Then there's James Tarkowski's tackle on Richarlison. It's incredible this wasn't a free-kick let alone a yellow and possibly a red.

1 min 17 secs

It's fair to say some referees are still to find the right place with more lenient officiating.

Referee Martin Atkinson clearly didn't get it right in this match, and there can't be any doubt it's going to be more difficult with the more aggressive teams in the league.

It seemed as though Jurgen Klopp was on verge of make more comments about this after the game on Sunday.

Let's see how this develops, as officials learn and adapt to the new principles.

We want lighter refereeing, but we don't want players to get away with these tackles.