Billy Wilson

Tue 9 February 2021 18:15, UK

West Brom have had the joint-most VAR decisions go against them this season in what will come as a surprise to absolutely no one in the Albion fanbase. 

Contentious VAR decisions have gone against us all season and in some cases it has had certain Albion fans wishing for a return to the VAR-less Championship.

The VAR debate boiled over this week as Mike Dean issued two red cards in separate games which were both overturned a few days later.

While fans of other clubs debate which decisions have gone for and against their side this season, a different debate rages on at The Hawthorns.

According to stats posted to Twitter by ESPN reporter Dale Johnson, Albion have been on the wrong end of the Video Assistant Referee more than any other club.

He claims that one VAR decision has gone our way this season, though we don’t recall which decision this was.

We are joint with Liverpool when it comes to net decisions against with both us and the Reds joint on five net VAR calls against.

You could argue that Liverpool have had it worse than us as they have had nine decisions go against them this season but they have also had four go for them, we have had one.

Continuing on, Johnson also claimed that West Brom, along with Tottenham and Brighton have had three goals given to the opposition by VAR, more than any of the other top-flight clubs.

The annoying thing about these stats is that if we had different referees for certain games then this table would look dramatically different.

When we had a penalty taken off us at Old Trafford, that was a subjective decision which is interesting as the Red Devils have been the beneficiaries of more subjective VAR decisions by any other club in the Premier League, obviously.

It was a stonewall penalty that was taken away by VAR for no good reason.

Similarly with Matheus Pereira’s red card against Crystal Palace, on what planet was that a red card?

Surely if that was a red card then Robert Snodgrass should’ve seen red for a similar challenge against Spurs last weekend?

The only consistency with these decisions is that they go against us every time and quite frankly it is tiring.

If the decisions that were overturned were genuine errors then you could chalk these stats up to bad luck but subjective decisions are going against us and that’s not right.

At least if we go down we won’t have to put up with the ridiculous VAR controversy every week.

In other West Brom news, Premier League and MLS clubs want to sign this Albion player and one bid has already been rebuffed.

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