The Premier League’s Key Match Incidents panel has now confirmed what many Liverpool supporters, players and coaching staff believed as soon as the incident occurred. Alexander Isak should have been awarded a penalty when he was pulled back by Jurrien Timber during Arsenal’s 1-0 victory at Anfield earlier this month, while a majority of the panel also felt that VAR should have intervened and recommended an on-field review.

What makes the episode significant is not simply that a mistake was made – referees have always made mistakes and always will. The larger issue is that football has spent years introducing technology specifically to reduce errors in decisive moments, yet one of the season’s most important matches between two title contenders was still influenced by a decision that has subsequently been judged incorrect.

For Liverpool, that represents more than a source of frustration. It could have significant consequences over the course of the season.

The Result Cannot Be Separated From the Decision

It is impossible to know with certainty what would have happened if the penalty had been awarded. Football rarely follows a predictable script. Liverpool would still have needed to score from the spot, and the match would have continued with plenty of time remaining.

Nevertheless, it is equally impossible to ignore the significance of the opportunity that was taken away. Arsenal were leading 1-0 at the time through Kai Havertz’s goal, and Liverpool were denied a chance to draw level from twelve yards. In a match ultimately decided by a single goal, a mistake allowed one team to do what they do best and frustrate the other.

That is not a minor detail or an inconsequential moment buried within ninety minutes of football. It was one of the defining incidents of the afternoon.

The difficulty for Liverpool is that the acknowledgement of error changes nothing practical. Arsenal still left Anfield with three points. Liverpool still suffered a defeat. The league table remains exactly as it was before the KMI panel reached its conclusions.

These Moments Can Shape Title Races

Premier League titles are often decided by remarkably small margins. Clubs spend vast sums assembling squads capable of gaining an extra point here or an extra goal there because everybody understands how fine the differences can be at the top of the table.

That is why incidents like this resonate long after the final whistle.

Nobody is suggesting Liverpool’s season will be determined by a single refereeing decision in November. Teams have dozens of opportunities across a campaign to help or hinder their own cause. Yet if Liverpool remain involved in the title race deep into the spring and eventually fall short by a handful of points, matches such as this one will inevitably be revisited.

What’s worse, Liverpool were already on the wrong end of a similar situation earlier this season, when the KMI panel reached a verdict that the penalty given against them for Nottingham Forest back in August should not have been given on-field. However, on that occasion, they also ruled that the VAR was right not to intervene. That game ended in a 2-2 draw.

The reason is straightforward. This is not merely a controversial call debated by rival supporters. An independent review process has assessed the incident and concluded that the officials got it wrong. Liverpool are therefore entitled to feel that a potentially decisive opportunity was taken from them in a game against a direct rival, the reigning champions, no less.

The Premier League Should Expect Better From VAR

Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the controversy concerns VAR rather than the initial decision made by Andy Madley.

Referees have fractions of a second to make judgments in real time. Even with excellent positioning, certain incidents can be missed. That has always been part of football.

VAR, however, exists to provide a second layer of protection. The system gives officials multiple camera angles, replays and time to analyse key moments. When a shirt pull inside the penalty area is reviewed and still produces the wrong outcome, difficult questions naturally follow.

The Premier League has repeatedly argued that VAR reduces the number of clear mistakes. In many situations that is undoubtedly true. Yet supporters are increasingly confronted by incidents where technology appears not to have fulfilled its most important purpose. Rather than eliminating controversy, it often seems merely to relocate it from the pitch to the review room.

Do Liverpool get to redeem all these apologies and errors from ProRef/PGMOL for points at the end of the season? If not, how much longer should title races be impacted by incompetent officials who told us that VAR was the answer

— Adrian Tempany (@AdrianTempany) November 11, 2026

The panel’s finding that VAR should have recommended a review only strengthens the perception that the process failed at more than one level, and a deeper analysis of how this keeps happening, with the aim of rooting it out, seems necessary.

A Wider Problem for the League

This is not an isolated incident. The same KMI panel recently concluded that Ipswich Town should have been awarded a penalty against Hull City after Nobel Mendy held back Dara O’Shea, another decision that was missed by both the referee and VAR team.

Taken individually, such errors may appear manageable. Collectively, they create a growing credibility problem.

The Premier League is widely regarded as the strongest domestic competition in world football. It attracts the best players, many of the best coaches and a global audience unmatched by any other league. Those standards inevitably create expectations that extend beyond the football itself.

Supporters can accept honest mistakes. What becomes harder to accept is the frequency with which major incidents still require retrospective clarification. When the most sophisticated review system in the sport repeatedly reaches conclusions that are later overturned by official assessments, confidence in the process inevitably suffers.

That is particularly damaging because VAR was introduced to increase trust in officiating decisions, not to create fresh reasons to question them.

Liverpool Have Every Right to Feel Aggrieved

Andoni Iraola’s comments after the match reflected a frustration increasingly shared across the game. His suggestion that players are almost encouraged to exaggerate contact in order to receive the correct decision highlights an uncomfortable contradiction within modern football.

Officials regularly discourage simulation, while managers and players often feel that staying on their feet works against them. Whether one agrees with Iraola’s phrasing or not, the underlying concern is understandable. If a player can be fouled, remain upright and then not receive the correct decision, football creates incentives that nobody claims to want.

The KMI panel’s verdict will not help Liverpool recover the points lost against Arsenal, nor will it alter the league table. What it does provide is confirmation that their complaints were justified, and cannot be regarded as sore losing.

More importantly, it shines a spotlight on an issue that extends beyond one match. The Premier League rightly presents itself as the benchmark against which every other league is measured. If that status is to be maintained, the quality of officiating and the effectiveness of the VAR system must consistently meet the same standard as the football itself, or at least aspire to do so.

On this occasion, according to the league’s own review process, they fell well short of it.