'Always go against us' - Bukayo Saka's VAR rant is absolutely spot on

Arsenal beat home side Newcastle United through the skin of their teeth on Sunday evening, after an equaliser from Mikel Merino and a winner from Gabriel in the last 10 minutes of the match secured the victory for them.

It was a chaotic match, with penalty shouts one after the other for both teams, and a chaotic match deserved a chaotic ending like the one fans witnessed at the death.

However, if one of those penalty shouts were given to Arsenal, the story would have been very, very different in the game.

In the 15th minute, Victor Gyökeres was taken out by Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope, and after a surprising on-field review by the Video Assistant Referee, the penalty was ultimately not given to the Gunners.

The penalty was originally awarded, but then it was taken away after a lengthy check, leaving room for criticism from players, coaches, as well as pundits.

Arsenal deserved a penalty in the win over Newcastle United, per Saka

Fans were fuming. The coach was fuming. The players were fuming, because this would not have been that stressful if the penalty was simply given to them, as they thought it was a deserving one.

Bukayo Saka, who was also surprised, gave a rant about VAR and, honestly, it seems to be absolutely fair.

He said to Sky Sports: “Obviously, there are a few things we can speak about. For example, the penalty. For me, if you have VAR, it’s for clear and obvious errors, and the fact that it took the ref that long to decide shows that it’s not a clear and obvious error.

"Things like this, these little things, always go against us. But I think today, we got what we deserved for sure. That’s why we are all so happy.”

That is absolutely understandable. VAR is being used for so much more than the actual reason it was introduced for. It was supposed to be used for clear and obvious errors, and that has not been happening for a while now.

This, too, was not a clear and obvious error. The penalty was supposed to be a clear penalty, but it wasn't clearly not a penalty.

There is also another side to it that everyone has to consider. If that penalty was given, it changes the entire direction of the match. Maybe Arsenal would not have had to dig that deep to look for an equaliser. They did, and it was all because of one decision that just went wrong.