Premier League admits Arsenal VAR error against Liverpool

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| Sports reporter Published November 11, 2026 12:05pm Updated November 11, 2026 12:06pm Alexander Isak had his shirt pulled by Jurrien Timber (Picture: Getty) The Premier League has acknowledged that Liverpool were wrongly denied a penalty in their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal. However, Liverpool were not awarded a penalty just minutes after Havertz’s strike when Alexander Isak was pulled back by Jurrien Timber as he tried to head Bradley Barcola’s cross.

After the match, Liverpool manager Andoni Iraola said there was a ‘clear grab’ of Isak’s shirt and said he might have to start telling his players to go down to try and win a penalty. A review by the Key Match Incident (KMI) Panel, which provides an independent assessment of major decisions in every Premier League match, has now vindicated Iraola and suggested that Liverpool should have been awarded a penalty for the incident.

The KMI Panel voted 4:1 that the penalty should have been awarded by the on-field referee, while three of the five members of the panel voted that VAR should have intervened and sent the referee to the pitchside monitor ‘on the basis that it was a clear and obvious error’. Ask Metro Use AI to go deeper into the stories you care about – powered by Metro and trusted publications. ‘In this instance the panel deemed that Timber’s challenge on Isak met the threshold for a holding offence and should have resulted in a penalty kick, both on-field and through VAR intervention.’ Liverpool bounced back from their defeat to Arsenal with a 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace last weekend.