VAR voted Brighton Villain of the Season 2022-23
In a sign of how many times VAR went wrong against Brighton in 2022-23, the officiating out of Stockley Park has beaten even Graham Potter to the title of WAB Villain of the Season.
VAR gained 42.46 percent of the vote with Glow Up Graham only securing 30.87 percent. A surprisingly comfortable margin of victory for technology over the former Chelsea manager.
We should probably start by way of a disclaimer that VAR was not all bad to Brighton in the 2022-23 season. Without it, the Albion would not have been awarded their 99th minute penalty converted by Alexis Mac Allister to secure a 1-0 win over Manchester United.
The 3-1 victory over Southampton might have turned out very different if VAR had not ruled out a Theo Walcott goal on the hour mark for the tightest of offside decisions.
Southampton were in the ascendancy at that point having pulled one back minutes earlier. They would have drawn level at 2-2 had Walcott’s effort stood.
Instead, Stockley Park checked the Saints momentum and when Pascal Gross added a third for Brighton, any hopes the visitors had of a famous comeback were done.
VAR also spotted Erling Haaland fouling Levi Colwill before the record-breaking Norwegian forward headed beyond Jason Steele. Had that goal stood, Manchester City would have left the Amex with a 2-1 win rather than the Albion celebrating a famous draw.
All those beneficial moments provided by VAR took place in the the merry of month of May alone. Indeed, the Premier League table adjusted for VAR decisions shows that Brighton would have finished fifth without the technology existing rather than sixth .
Overall then, Brighton were not massively impacted by VAR. The problem that Albion fans have with it is that the mistakes it made were so horrific that nobody is ever likely to forget them in a hurry.
Subsequently, no club in the Premier League had more apologies from PGMOL chief Howard Webb for the performance of VAR than Brighton in 2022-23. At one point, Webb even had to drive to the American Express Elite Performance Centre in Lancing to say sorry to Roberto De Zerbi in person.
That meeting came following the Albion’s 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace which should have been a 2-1 victory. VAR though inexplicably drew their offside lines from the second-last Eagles defender rather the last man, ruling Pervis Estupinan as offside when he was in a perfectly legal position.
Even worse was to come at Spurs two months later. Brighton were in flying form at the time and eyeing a late charge into the Champions Leagues spots.
Victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium would have put them in a very strong position, moving the Seagulls above Spurs in the standings and with games in hand on everyone else ahead of them in the table.
What followed was four extraordinary pieces of officiating. Kaoru Mitoma and Alexis Mac Allister saw goals controversially ruled out for handball.
Mitoma was denied a stonewall penalty when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg trod on his ankle in the box and the same home player got away with a first half handball in the Spurs box.
What could (and probably should) have been a 5-2 win for Brighton ended in a 2-1 defeat. How did the officials get everything so wrong?
Were they deliberately trying to prevent Brighton reaching Europe because it would embarrass the European Super League Elite Six if a smaller club with a modest budget outperform them?
Was the Premier League attempting to manufacture results to help those Elite Six qualify for Europe to lessen the chances of them attempting to break away again? After all, that was one of the major reasons behind the European Super League in the first place.
A closed shop so that the likes of Brighton, Leicester City, West Ham United, Burnley, Southampton and all those other unlikely European qualifiers stopped reaching continental competitions in place of the Elite Six.
Whilst pundits were not so willing to indulge in such wild conspiracy theories, there was still widespread anger at the way the Albion had been cheated out of victory over Spurs.
“Brighton have been robbed this afternoon,” said Chris Sutton. “At least two horrendous decisions go against Mitoma. Howard Webb will be apologising to them once again, of that I’m sure. Truly awful.”
Commentator Steve Wilson’s words when VAR did not even look at the foul on Mitoma were: “Mitoma is first to the ball, out comes Hojbjerg’s foot and he catches Mitoma’s boot. I don’t see how it’s not a penalty.”
Nobody summed it up better than Brighton captain Lewis Dunk: “I don’t see what VAR is here for. You bring it in for big decisions and don’t make big decisions. What is the point of it?”
Sutton’s assertion that Webb would be apologising once again to Brighton were proven correct. Because a grovelling sorry makes up for being denied three points by total incompetence bordering on cheating.
Potter placing second behind VAR as Brighton Villain of the Season 2022-23 needs no explaining. Having been backed by Tony Bloom through some barren runs of form when most other owners would have sacked the manager, Potter repaid the faith by walking out for Chelsea with the campaign just five games old.
Not only that, but he took his entire first team coaching staff with him, including Albion stalwarts Bruno and Ben Roberts.
Chelsea came back for head of recruitment Paul Winstanley two months after Potter rocked up at Stamford Bridge. They then bid £55 million in January for Moises Caicedo just four months after Potter had publicly valued the Ecuador midfielder at £100 million.
And just to round things off nicely, Potter made a series of snide comments after walking out. “Managing Chelsea is easy because of the quality of forwards here,” he infamously said in what some perceived as a dig at Bloom for not spending big on a new striker.
It turned out, however, that managing Chelsea was not easy. Potter’s honeymoon period with the Blues was abruptly ended when his side were hammered 4-1 at the Amex.
As things began to go badly wrong, Potter told the world: “If I wanted an easy life, I would have stayed at Brighton.” He was sacked by Chelsea not long after following just seven months in the job.
The Albion meanwhile were £21 million richer thanks to the compensation Todd Boehly paid for Potter and had an upgraded manager in De Zerbi. Karma.
Third place in Villain of the Season went to Twitter transfer specialist Fabrizio Romano. The Italian has earned the ire of Albion fans for reporting on Brighton players who might be leaving the club, such as Marc Cucurella, Leandro Trossard and Mac Allister.
In addition, he tends to twist quotes to suit his agenda, Mac Allister being a case in point. The Argentine World Cup winner gave a gushing interview about the Albion and how happy he was at the Amex, only for Romano to report solely the bit where he commented on a potential move.
Romano has subsequently been labelled a frothy coffee drinking charlatan who knows nothing about the Albion. Although bizarrely, most Brighton fans were willing to take Romano’s word as gospel when he was first to break stories about Joao Pedro and Mahmoud Dahoud. Both of which turned out to be 100 percent accurate.
WeAreBrighton.com Villain of the Season 2022-23 – The Results
- VAR – 42.46%
- Graham Potter – 30.87%
- Fabrizio Romano – 9.16%
- Away Ticket Checks – 6.42%
- Marc Cucurella – 6.11%
- Pastor John – 2.95%
Previous Winners: Season Ticket Sharing Scheme (2022), Lee Mason (2021), Matteo Guendouzi (2020), Ricardo Gold (2019), Crystal Palace Fans (2018), Alex Pritchard (2017), Mike Dean (2016), David Burke (2015), Nigel Adkins (2014), El Hadj Diouf (2013), Glenn Murray (2012). Nigel Adkins (2011), Dean Hammond (2010)
