Premier League Table Without Every Official VAR Error: Arsenal Biggest Losers
Former Premier League referees’ chief Keith Hackett never had much time for criticism of any officials.
“It’s a little bit like me advising Lionel Messi on how he can improve his performance and where he went wrong,” Hackett once scoffed.
However, since Howard Webb took charge of English referees back in 2022, a Key Match Incidents (KMI) panel has been set up to do exactly what Hackett could never countenance: review the referees. Three former players and coaches, a Premier League representative and a member of the officials’ governing body convene at the end of each round of fixtures to point out where the referees and VAR have gone wrong.
This process is conducted behind a veil of mystique, with no official channel providing an insight into the panel’s findings during the season. BBC Sport, however, have been granted a peak behind the curtain and listed every single incorrect decision that was made during the 2025–26 campaign.
According to the KMI panel, there have been 25 blunders from the VAR (seven more than last season). Crucially, these do not include decisions made by the on-pitch referees which are judged to have been “errors” but don’t meet the “clear and obvious” threshold for VAR intervention. The incidents in question are so egregious that the officials at Stockley Park should have spotted them.
Working under the admittedly sketchy assumption that every penalty that should have been awarded would have been converted, the Premier League title race could have played out quite differently in a perfect world.
2025–26 Premier League Table If Every Error Corrected by KMI Panel
Arsenal’s victory over West Ham actually isn’t considered a mistake. / Marc Atkins/Getty Images
They say that refereeing errors shake out across the course of the season, but that is not the case for Arsenal. Mikel Arteta’s Premier League champions won four points thanks to VAR errors. Manchester City’s tally, in contrast, was not affected.
While the Gunners would still have theoretically won the title in an alternate reality of unequivocal refereeing justice, the race would have gone down to the final day, with both sides levels on points and City ahead on goal difference. In that scenario, it’s hard to imagine that Pep Guardiola’s farewell fixture against Aston Villa would have ended in defeat.
Their final tally may not have been affected, but Manchester City were not entirely spared from the fickle fates of VAR. Phil Foden was denied a clear penalty in a 2–1 defeat to Newcastle United in November which Guardiola would later rant about. The Catalan coach was right to feel aggrieved on that occasion according to the KMI panel, however, City also benefitted from some poor officiating against Everton in May when Bernardo Silva somehow escaped giving away a penalty for going all WWE on Merlin Röhl.
| Position / Team | Points Without Errors | Points Difference |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Arsenal | 81 | 4 🔻 |
| 2. Man City | 78 | 0 |
| 3. Man Utd | 69 | 2 🔻 |
| 4. Aston Villa | 65 | 0 |
| 5. Liverpool | 60 | 0 |
| 6. Bournemouth | 58 | 1 ⬆️ |
| 7. Brighton | 54 | 1 ⬆️ |
| 8. Sunderland | 54 | 0 |
| 9. Brentford | 53 | 0 |
| 10. Fulham | 52 | 0 |
| 11. Chelsea | 51 | 1 🔻 |
| 12. Everton | 51 | 1 ⬆️ |
| 13. Leeds | 48 | 2 ⬆️ |
| 14. Newcastle | 47 | 2 🔻 |
| 15. Nottingham Forest | 45 | 1 ⬆️ |
| 16. Crystal Palace | 45 | 0 |
| 17. Tottenham | 41 | 0 |
| 18. West Ham | 37 | 2 🔻 |
| 19. Burnley | 22 | 0 |
| 20. Wolves | 21 | 1 ⬆️ |
Manchester United owe two points of their final tally to the favorable refereeing decision which allowed Bryan Mbeumo to handle the ball before Matheus Cunha found the back of the net in a 3–2 win over Nottingham Forest at the end of the season.
Arne Slot spent much of the campaign bemoaning Liverpool ’s misfortune when it came to the officials at Stockley Park. “If there’s a VAR intervention or if there’s something that could be left or right [50-50] then the decision goes against us,” the Dutch boss moaned after Benjamin Šeško’s controversial strike for United was allowed in May. “That has been the whole season, every single time the same.”
Intriguingly, the KMI panel did not judge Šeško’s goal, which he prodded over the line after the ball seemingly brushed his fingertips, to meet the threshold of an error. The explanation being that no conclusive video footage could be found during the game to disallow the goal.
In fact, the only incident involving Liverpool which the arbiters considered to be a mistake came on the opening day of the campaign, when Marcos Senesi was not sent off for Bournemouth after handling the ball. Liverpool won that contest 4–2 regardless.
Every VAR Error Arsenal Have Benefitted From
William Saliba (center) fouled Thierno Barry in a narrow 1–0 win. / Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images
The second-most common scoreline in the 2025–26 Premier League season was a 1–0 Arsenal win. However, three of those eight exceedingly narrow victories were aided by a VAR mistake.
Viktor Gyökeres’s solitary penalty was the only difference between Arsenal and Everton during a tight contest at Hill Dickinson Stadium in December. However, the Toffees should have been given a spot kick of their own for William Saliba’s errant swipe at Thierno Barry. Everton manager David Moyes had a lengthy conversation with referee Sam Barrott after the final whistle but wouldn’t divulge the words that were exchanged. “I’d like to,” Moyes shrugged, “but I’d probably be fined.”
- Everton 0–1 Arsenal : William Saliba escapes foul on Thierno Barry
- Brighton 0–1 Arsenal : Gabriel Martinelli not penalized for tug on Mats Wieffer
- Arsenal 1–0 Burnley : Kai Havertz wrongly escapes red card
Fabian Hürzeler held little back before, during and after Brighton & Hove Albion’s fraught loss to the Gunners on the south coast in March. While much of the focus was diverted towards the German coach bemoaning Arsenal’s time-wasting tactics, he may have had more sympathy arguing for a penalty. Gabriel Martinelli wrongly escaped punishment for a needless tug on Mats Wieffer in the box, somehow conspiring to hold onto his opponent’s arm while not even looking at the ball and still emerge unscathed.
It’s harder to quantify what impact a red card for Kai Havertz would have had in what proved to be Arsenal’s most decisive victory over the season. The ephemeral striker had already nodded the nervy hosts into a first-half lead against Burnley on the final Monday of the season before he sunk his studs into the calf of Lesley Ugochukwu. The panel deemed that Havertz should have been sent off in the 67th minute, which could have caused all sorts of carnage as Arsenal desperately held on for the win that would ultimately seal the title.
Given how much the Gunners benefitted from the few categorical mistakes VAR made, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Arteta took the same stance as Hackett when it comes to criticizing referees.
