GOT IT WRONG! Premier League panel admit Arsenal SHOULD have been given penalty vs Aston Villa as unanimous verdict reached

Arsenal should have been awarded a penalty in their Premier League clash against Aston Villa. The top-flight Key Match Incidents Panel came to a unanimous verdict in establishing that Ian Maatsen fouled Bruno Guimaraes.

The Gunners' Brazilian summer signing was brought down inside the area in the 98th minute of Arsenal's victory, but a penalty was not awarded by Jarred Gillett, and VAR did not choose to refer the decision to review. The Arsenal midfielder screamed to be awarded a spot-kick but to no avail.

The moment proved not to be too controversial as Arsenal came away 1-0 victors thanks to Bukayo Saka's strike. However, it appears the north London side were denied an opportunity to extend their lead.

The Key Match Incident Panel is an independent group of five members: three former players or coaches, one Premier League representative, and one from ProRef. They offer an independent assessment of key decisions in every Premier League match.

The KMI Panel said: "The panel felt that a penalty should have been awarded on-field for Maatsen’s reckless challenge on Guimaraes. Clear contact was made on the attacker’s standing leg and Maatsen made no contact with the ball."

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They also believe the failure to award the penalty was a clear and obvious error. The Premier League added: "They (KMI panel) also felt that VAR should have intervened as the non-penalty awarded was a clear and obvious error. The panel felt that the challenge was reckless and therefore a second caution should have been awarded.

Speaking earlier this week, former Select Group referee Andy Davies given an insight into VAR James Bell's likely process to ESPN. "VAR James Bell clearly applied the new "high bar" for intervention when he cleared this decision, taking the view that the referee's on-field decision not to award a penalty to Arsenal was not a clear and obvious error," he said.

Davies came to the same conclusion as the KMI Panel, however. "The decision by Villa's Maatsen to challenge in the nature he did, from behind with a scissor action and no opportunity to play the ball was a poor one," he explained.

"By making contact only with Guimarães and none on the ball, there can be little doubt that it met the threshold for a foul -- and it took place inside the penalty box.

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"The surprising non-intervention by VAR is a result of the Premier League's desire this season to have less involvement and only very clear errors to be corrected, with a new "higher bar" for interventions to be applied.

"It's a positive principle that should result in less time spent re-litigating decisions, yes. However, this was clearly a mistake from the on-field referee not to award a penalty and, in my opinion, this was an intervention that has been missed by the VAR team.

"Arsenal winning the game will cover the narrative to some degree, however, if this was a deciding moment that cost Arsenal all three points, the profile of the incident would've been significant."

The Premier League revealed that in the second week of action there were 21 referee key match incidents. Of those 76 per cent were deemed to be correct decisions on the field, with the value rising to 90 per cent following VAR reviews.

The panel established that two VAR reviews resulting in overturns were proven to be correct, while the challenge on Guimaraes was the only missed VAR intervention.

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