Footage: VAR appears to miss huge Aston Villa incident - opinion

While Aston Villa were winning 1-0, it appeared that Ollie Watkins was pulled back by Fernandinho, something that the referee and VAR ignored.

On what was a frantic and final day of the Premier League season, Aston Villa almost pulled off one of the shocks of the season when they raced into a 2-0 lead away to Manchester City with Matty Cash and Philippe Coutinho getting on the scoresheet.

However, with three quickfire goals late in the second half, Steven Gerrard could only watch on as his side collapsed in front of his own eyes but it could have been all very different had Fernandinho been penalised and potentially sent off for his pull on Watkins which appeared needles when only trailing 1-0.

The Brazilian was ushering the ball back to his keeper having recently just fallen behind and felt the need to pull back Watkins who was closing Ederosn down, but neither the referee nor VAR officials thought it was a foul.

TIF Thoughts on this incident…

With Villa ahead at the time and had the momentum on their side, a sending off and free-kick right on the stroke of half-time could have swung the game completely in their favour and there doesn’t appear to be much evidence to suggest this wasn’t a foul.

Cleary Watkins’ running in behind was causing Ferndhingo a problem at this point and with the midfielder, playing centre back yesterday, 37-years old, it’s no surprise he doesn’t have the pace in his legs anymore.

In other news: Injured Aston Villa star sends message to fans on Instagram

Source