Referees are fallible, yes. But the Manchester derby VAR error? It was alarming and embarrassing

After the opening weekend of this season, the Premier League trumpeted a record of 100 per cent accuracy in key decisions made by match officials. Across the first 10 games, it listed 21 key match incidents (KMIs), ranging from penalty appeals and potential red-card challenges to goals being double-checked for possible offside. The league’s KMI panel agreed that the on-field match officials had made correct decisions in 18 of those 21 cases — and that “following VAR intervention, 100 per cent of decisions were deemed correct”. But that wasn’t quite the case. The exception was an unsuccessful Brighton & Hove…