Televised replays have long provoked strong views. \u201cIf the videotape shows it\u2019s a penalty then all the worse for the videotape,\u201d the Brazilian writer Nelson Rodrigues declared, before adding, \u201cThe videotape is stupid.\u201d That scepticism underpins a simple thought experiment: recalculating the season on the basis that on-pitch decisions stood and every penalty overturned by VAR would have been scored.<\/p>\n
The exercise is imperfect \u2014 disallowed goals and overturned calls change game dynamics \u2014 but it offers a clear measure of Stockley Park\u2019s influence. At the summit, Arsenal would still lead on 26 points while Manchester City remain on 22. Bournemouth, however, climb dramatically: the Cherries go from ninth at the international break to third with 20 points, a rise driven in part by Jean-Philippe Mateta\u2019s opening goal at Selhurst Park being given after VAR ruled he was onside.<\/p>\n
Liverpool also benefit under the VAR-free model. A point gained from Brentford\u2019s penalty \u2014 awarded after VAR judged an offence to have taken place inside the area and converted by Igor Thiago \u2014 would turn a 3\u20132 defeat into a 2\u20132 draw and lift Liverpool to fourth on 19 points. That follows another contentious episode in which Virgil van Dijk\u2019s goal was disallowed for an apparent offside from Andy Robertson in the loss to Manchester City; Arne Slot conceded that \u201cthat debatable decision was not why they were so convincingly beaten.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brighton would gain two points from a second-half penalty scrubbed off after VAR judged Georginio Rutter had dived; acting under the assumption that Danny Welbeck would have converted, Brighton rise five places in the table.<\/p>\n
Chelsea are among the biggest beneficiaries of VAR so far. Early-season interventions saw Eberechi Eze have a free-kick ruled out and Fulham punished by decisions at Stamford Bridge, including a disallowed Josh King goal and a penalty awarded after Michael Salisbury\u2019s VAR call. Without those interventions Chelsea would be three points worse off and drop from third to ninth, prompting Marco Silva to call the decisions \u201cunbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n
This VAR-free table is a rough indicator, not a definitive history, but it underlines how a handful of interventions have reshaped the early standings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A VAR-free Premier League table rewrites standings, lifting Bournemouth and Liverpool in this model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,739,728,773,190,465,175,172],"tags":[538,1162,1215],"class_list":["post-4560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-bournemouth","category-brentford","category-brighton-hove-albion","category-chelsea","category-crystal-palace","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-amad-diallo","tag-analytics","tag-controversy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}