Leon Bailey’s second-half goal for Aston Villa in Friday night’s Premier League clash with Sheffield United was ruled out by another controversial VAR decision
Aston Villa fans were left fuming after VAR chalked off their opener against Sheffield United.
The Villans thought they had broken the deadlock in the 59th minute as Leon Bailey side-footed home a squared ball from Ollie Watkins at the back post. But the goal was ruled out by referee Anthony Taylor after he was advised to head to the monitor by VAR.
But even after Foderingham had flapped at the ball, the Blades had the chance to clear but were dispossessed, leading to Watkins’ cross for the goal. And the amount of time between the incident and the goal left Villa fans furious, as they claimed play should not have been brought back so far.
One X user wrote: “Aston Villa have been robbed, I can’t believe what I’m seeing,” while another fumed: “Absolutely awful decision.”
A third tweeted: “VAR is soooo bad! Got to get rid of it,” and a fourth added: “Disgrace of a decision!”
A fifth argued: “Different phase of play no?” and another raged: “I’m 100% sure the Premier League do not want Aston Villa to be top of the league.”
The Villa faithful felt even more aggrieved considering several decisions had failed to go their way. They were denied a fairly clear penalty shout nine minutes in as Watkins was pulled down by Vinicius Souza, only for VAR to give Taylor the nod to play on.
In the second half, a cross towards Jacob Ramsey appeared to have been handballed by George Baldock. But a review judged it to have struck above the ‘T-shirt line’.
Tempers at Villa park reached a boiling point when Cameron Archer scored for the away side in the 87th minute. Yet Nicolo Zaniolo was on hand to score a vital equaliser in the dying seconds to keep Villa’s title charge alive.
The draw moves them up one place above Liverpool into second spot, while Arsenal still narrowly lead the way ahead of their mouth-watering trip to Anfield on Saturday evening which will determine who is top of the tree on Christmas Day.
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