By Alan Hutton

21st Feb, 2023 | 9:29am

Pundit backs drastic rule change after what he spotted at Arsenal

Alan Hutton has backed suggestions to include semi-automated offsides in the Premier League after VAR failures for Arsenal and Brighton last weekend.

Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, the former Tottenham and Aston Villa defender insisted “something has to happen” with VAR.

There were two significant offside errors when Arsenal faced Brentford and Brighton faced Crystal Palace last weekend that led PGMOL chief Howard Webb to apologise to both the Gunners and the Seagulls for the mistakes.

Lee Mason, the official responsible for the error which allowed Ivan Toney’s offside equaliser to stand against Arsenal, left the PGMOL on Saturday (18 February) and will no longer referee any Premier League matches.

According to The Athletic (14 February), the Premier League is closely monitoring the rollout of semi-automated offsides in the Champions League following its success in the World Cup.

When asked if the updated technology would be a good solution to the VAR problems in the English top flight, Hutton told Football Insider: “Possibly.

“I mean they will have to trial it. I thought in the World Cup those decisions for offside worked really well. They showed pictures, there was no getting away from it so I do not see why that can’t be done.

“It will be interesting to see how that works. The Crystal Palace one against Brighton was shocking, they have actually put the line on the wrong guy which is quite unbelievable.

“Something has to happen. I know VAR takes some of the emotion away when they score but an offside is an offside. If they get the lines in the right position it is easy to tell.

“But it will be interesting to see what the next steps are for the offside decisions.“

In other news, according to sources, Arsenal are in pole position to sign Declan Rice on £200,000-a-week deal after new talks.