On Saturday, Chelsea won against West Ham in a controversial manner, as a late equalizer by Maxwel Cornet was ruled out by an extremely questionable VAR decision.
After a goalless first half, Michail Antonio put West Ham ahead after the hour mark.
Chelsea manager, Thomas Tuchel, in an effort to turn the game around, made substitutions including that of Ben Chilwell and Kai Havertz.
The left-back was instrumental to the game after his introduction, scoring one and assisting another. And just like that, Chelsea went 2-1 up by the 88th minute.
It was then substituted Cornet’s turn to find the net. However, that goal was cancelled as Jarrod Bowen was deemed to foul Chelsea keeper Edouard Mendy in the build-up.
The subsequent defeat led to Hammers boss David Moyes, whose team now sits 18th after six games, blasting the referees.
Quoting Moyes: “It’s absolutely rotten from one of the supposedly elite referees – it doesn’t say much about whoever sent him over from VAR as well – it is an unbelievable decision against us.”
“And I’m actually more embarrassed for the guy who did the VAR than I am even for the referee.”
Reflecting on the absurd decision, Moyes claimed to have “lost faith” in PL referees.
The “guy who did the VAR” in question here is Jarred Gillett.
The Australian referee rose to fame in England when he became the first overseas referee to take charge of a Premier League game, refereeing the match between Watford and Newcastle.
Gillett started his refereeing career in 2010-11 in the A-league, Australia’s premier football league, establishing himself as one of the best in the league.
He has also officiated in other leagues around the world, including Indian Super League, Saudi Professional League and more. But none of the leagues mentioned come close to the scale and pressure of officiating in the English Premier League.
This is not the first instance of Gillett coming under fire for his officiating in the Premier League. In fact, he made an unforgivable error in his first game as VAR in the Premier League.
Back in 2019, Arsenal were denied a winner against Crystal Palace, thanks to another dubious VAR decision made by Gillett.
Arsenal were again victims of a Gillett-made VAR call when Gillett failed to flag up a possible penalty and some inconsistent calls against Man City in a game they ended up losing 2-1.
Jarred Gillett sprung into the limelight when he officiated his final A-League game wearing a microphone. He offered a unique point-of-view to viewers around the world with respect to refereeing.
VAR was also used in this match and this mic’d up effort showed everyone how VAR, referees and linesmen worked in tandem throughout the game.
For a brief time, the Australian was thought to be exactly the kind of referee needed to sort out VAR issues.
From sorting out issues to being the issue himself, Jarred Gillett’s star has fallen sharply.
Here’s hoping he can make up for it in the upcoming matches.
