This weekend in VAR: Offside, handball rules continue to confound

Every weekend, theScore will look back on the most divisive, confusing, and downright upsetting decisions made by VAR throughout Europe. As always, there's plenty to choose from.

Sterling's offside goal against Chelsea

It wasn't ridiculed in quite the same way as Roberto Firmino's infamous "armpit" incident earlier this year, but the fine margins that wiped out Raheem Sterling's goal against Chelsea on Saturday still had many up in a huff.

Luckily for all of us, it didn't impact the final result - Manchester City still went on to claim three points - but perhaps it's time we rethink the offside law after Sterling's effort was (correctly) chalked off over a matter of inches.

VAR got this one right, but maybe that's the problem.

The handball rule continues to baffle

As much as the offside rule and VAR's implementation of it has caused angst, the rewritten handball laws that came into effect this season might be more confounding. Introduced to provide clarity, they've muddied the waters more than ever before.

Take Saturday's rain-soaked clash between Atalanta and Juventus, for example. The hosts were awarded a first-half penalty - which Musa Barrow took (and missed) instead of Papu Gomez for some reason - after Sami Khedira was adjudged to have handled the ball inside the area.

The ball appears to strike his foot ever so slightly before then bouncing off his arm, which would have negated the infraction; a free-kick, or penalty, isn't to be awarded if "the ball touches a player's hand/arm directly from their own head/body/foot or the head/body/foot of another player who is close/near," according to the International Football Association Board (IFAB).

That said, the rules also state that a handball is to be called if the player's hand/arm is in a position that makes their body "unnaturally bigger," which Khedira's outstretched limb certainly does.

That's confusing enough, but it was even more perplexing that an almost identical incident involving Emre Can in the second half (at the 2:34 mark in the video above) wasn't deemed a foul despite the referee reviewing the video monitor on the touchline.

"I saw a few replays, but there is so much confusion nowadays on handball," Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini said after the match, referencing the no-call on Can. "For example, the penalty we were awarded was the kind of challenge I'd have been furious to see given against me.

"The confusion is there, it continues to be confusing. There are completely different interpretations between coaches, referees, players, fans and we need some clarity on what these rules are ... There cannot be such vastly contradictory unbiased opinions. Otherwise, handball becomes a lottery and that's precisely what we are meant to avoid."

Amen, Gian Piero. Amen.

At what point can VAR intervene?

That same contest in Bergamo brought up another issue: how far back can VAR go to make a decision after a goal is scored?

Gonzalo Higuain's second marker of the match, which stood up as the eventual winner, ended a move that began with a clear handball by Juan Cuadrado at the other end of the pitch, some 29 seconds prior. The Colombian stopped the ball with his hand while on the ground; the next time Atalanta touched it, they were taking it out of their own net.

The players were furious, but the goal stood.

Here's how Neil Swarbrick, the Premier League's VAR chief and a former referee, explained this type of scenario earlier this year:

"It's a subjective area but we try to put things in a process. We'll only go back to the attacking phase immediately before the goal. We don't look at multiple phases. When the defense gain possession of the ball, that's an automatic end to a phase," he said.

"It's quite subjective but generally, we're only looking at the immediate phase prior to the goal being scored. The length of an attacking phase changes depending on the team so I can't really put a time on it."

Seems clear!

Did Crystal Palace get jobbed?

You be the judge here.

Crystal Palace fell 2-1 to Liverpool on Saturday, but the result could've been different if James Tomkins' close-range finish wasn't wiped away when the match was still knotted at nil-nil.

Upon review from the VAR booth, it was determined that Jordan Ayew fouled Dejan Lovren before Tomkins poked the ball home.

Roy Hodgson said afterward that he agreed with the decision, though there will surely be plenty of Eagles fans claiming the Croatian defender tumbled over too easily.

Southampton's penalty angers Arsenal

Before boos rained down from the Emirates crowd and Arsenal supporters voiced their desire to see manager Unai Emery removed from his post, Gunners fans bemoaned Stuart Attwell's decision to award Southampton a second-half penalty on Saturday.

Kieran Tierney was penalized for a slight tug on the arm of Danny Ings, and although James Ward-Prowse's initial effort was denied, he promptly slotted home the rebound in the eventual 2-2 draw.

Tierney, as the old cliche goes, should never have given the referee a call to make, but replays certainly suggest the contact was minimal. In this instance, VAR can only overturn the decision on the field if a "clear and obvious" error was made by the official.

In a fluid sport that's littered with so much subjectivity, that's rarely the case.