Every time Leicester City were mistreated by VAR this season
By Nathan Wong
When the Foxes were mistreated
The number of VAR decisions going against Leicester have been much more numerous than those going in the Foxes’ favour, with the ones at United adding to a growing collection.
West Ham 4-1 Leicester City: 23rd August 2021
Leicester City were already one goal down when Ayoze Perez received a straight red card for a challenge on Pablo Fornals. Initially going unpunished, Perez was deemed of committing serious foul play by VAR and was subsequently sent off following an on-pitch review. Despite some mitigating circumstances, the nature of the tackle meant the red was justified.
Norwich 1-2 Leicester City: 28th August 2021
Leicester City saw both sides of VAR in this game, giving away a penalty as a result of VAR intervention. After VAR review, Soyuncu was deemed to have upended Pierre Lees-Melous, leading to the referee pointing to the spot. This was a rather soft penalty but one that Soyuncu didn’t need to give the referee a decision to make.
Brighton 2-1 Leicester City: 19th September 2021
Leicester City felt extremely hard-done-by after leaving without anything on the South Coast. The Foxes were victims of VAR on three occasions. The first was perhaps the most ludicrous, with Jannik Vestergaard being penalised for handball despite being held by Neal Maupay. Brighton were unfairly awarded the penalty after the VAR review.
After Leicester had started a comeback, they also had two goals ruled out for offside. Both were due to Harvey Barnes being in the goalkeepers’ eyeline. The first was probably justified, being similar to the Norwich one that went in the Foxes’ favour. The second, however, seemed extremely unfair given that Barnes did nothing to influence play. It was telling that in this case, there were view appeals from the Brighton players meaning this was the second injustice to occur in this game.