Van Dijk slams VAR after Liverpool fall to Arsenal despite clear Isak penalty shout

Virgil van Dijk rounded on VAR officials after Liverpool were beaten 1-0 by Arsenal at Anfield, calling a first-half incident involving Alexander Isak a “clear penalty” that the technology failed to act on. Kai Havertz’s first-half goal proved the difference as Arsenal claimed the three points.

The flashpoint came when Jurrien Timber grabbed Isak by his shirt as the £125m striker attempted to meet a dangerous cross from Bradley Barcola. Neither referee Andy Madley nor VAR intervened, a decision that left Newcastle’s on-loan forward and his Reds teammates visibly frustrated.

“It was a clear penalty on Isak. It’s a penalty but today it wasn’t meant to be,” Van Dijk said in his post-match interview. When asked whether Isak should have done more to alert the referee, the Liverpool captain pushed back sharply: “VAR doesn’t notice it? There are 50 cameras. Why does he have to complain when there’s so many cameras? Everyone has seen it. At the end of the day, it wasn’t given so congratulations to Arsenal.”

Jamie Carragher echoed the frustration, arguing the incident was precisely the kind of clear error VAR was introduced to correct. “One of the best goalscorers in the league is pulled back seven yards out and it stops him heading the ball — why does he need to make a meal of it? VAR do your job,” the former Liverpool defender said.

Newcastle head coach Andoni Iraola, whose side were on loan at Anfield for the fixture under the temporary arrangement, was equally blunt in his post-match assessment. He suggested Isak’s refusal to go to ground may have cost his team the decision, while making clear he found that reality troubling.

“There is a clear grab of the shirt. Alex was just in front of him, he was going to head in front of the goal but couldn’t because he had the shirt. I don’t understand why they didn’t call it, probably because he has not gone to the floor,” Iraola said. “You have to dive — if you don’t dive they won’t call it. That’s the problem we have with the game. If he goes to the floor, they call the penalty 100 percent.”

Iraola added that he did not consider a separate shout involving Cody Gakpo to be a penalty, focusing his criticism squarely on the Isak incident. The defeat leaves questions hanging over VAR’s consistency at a pivotal stage of the Premier League season.