PGMOL chief: Bruno Guimaraes should have been banned for Chelsea & Man Utd as new Arsenal VAR footage emerges

Bruno Guimaraes should have been sent off during Newcastle United's 1-0 win over Arsenal earlier this month, according to PGMOL chief Howard Webb.

The Newcastle midfielder escaped without punishment after his forearm connected with the back of Jorginho's head in the heated encounter at St James' Park.

The incident came after Arsenal's Kai Havertz escaped with a yellow card for a high challenge on Sean Longstaff.

And Webb admitted on Sky Sports' Match Officials Mic'd Up that both players should have been dismissed. Webb said: "Quite a busy game wasn't it? A couple of situations, that in the cold-light-of-day analysis that we go through, going forward, we would expect red cards in both of those situations."

Guimaraes was shown a yellow card that saw him suspended for the trip to Bournemouth after picking up his fifth Premier League booking of the season. A red card for violent conduct would have seen the Brazilian miss the upcoming matches against Chelsea and Manchester United following the international break.

Webb also delved deeper into Newcastle's winning goal, scored by Anthony Gordon, which was subject to three different VAR checks after initially being given by referee Stuart Attwell.

Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta described the decision to award the goal as a disgrace given the three incidents of contention before the ball hit the net.

The VAR audio recording released showed that no conclusive evidence could be found that the ball had gone out of play before Joe Willock crossed it nor that Joelinton fouled Gabriel or handled the ball before it reached Anthony Gordon, who had not been deemed offside.

Ultimately, the on-field decision stood as no clear and obvious error had been made after four minutes of checks.

Dissecting the audio recording, Webb said: "An unusual situation because there was three aspects for the VAR to check whether the on-field decision of goal should be overturned.

"We see the ball getting very close to the goal line (touchline), don't forget we've got an assistant referee who is right in line, the ball hasn't got a lot of pace as it goes to the line, so he's looking right down the line better than any of our cameras.

"And we know the ball is curved, so it can be overhanging the line and we need the evidence that it's out and we don't have that here. The ball then comes over and Joelinton challenges Gabriel, could be a foul, might be a foul, the VAR decides that the evidence from the footage isn't clear enough to warrant and intervene with a recommendation for a review for a clear error.

"I think the talk that we've seen after in this situation, the opinions that it splits across a lot of analysis since the situation suggests that was a correct non-intervention because of the subjectivity. And then one of those unusual situations where the ball goes between two players and trying to identify exactly when the ball leaves Joelinton is really difficult to establish because of the players being so close together.

"So, again no conclusive evidence that Gordon was offside when the ball was last touched to him and therefore the VAR went through that diligently and identified no clear evidence to intervene to overturn the goal. So the process actually was correct."